


Gradient

by Silver Blue (Seraph_Years)



Series: Insight: A New Metaphysical Series [1]
Category: Furry (Fandom), Original Work
Genre: Action/Adventure, Inspired by JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Urban Fantasy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:02:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 24,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24444016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seraph_Years/pseuds/Silver%20Blue
Summary: The Metaverse, a world where one can retreat to the interior of the mind and find inner peace. Arthur found it and has an alternate form over there, known as Quincy. His journey through it involves trauma, jealousy, bravery, and mystery.
Series: Insight: A New Metaphysical Series [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1765396





	1. A-Side

[May 1st: A New Life Under the Sun] 

Running. 

Running. 

Arthur’s running in a grassy field, his expression saying that he wants to get somewhere as fast as possible. He loves to take the initiative in everything he does, so he is getting every new thing out of the way by running to a city that, according to him, “has all sorts of interesting people and things to do.” Eventually, after 10 minutes he reached the new city that has direct ties to the still-yet-incomplete Metaverse. “Well, look at that. I managed to do everything step-by-step today. Nothing out of order, but the Metaverse is still one step ahead of me. Guess I better see what’s going on up there.” Arthur says triumphantly. His assignments are important, though he will not say what they are. 

[May 2nd: Temper] 

The minute he arrived there, he could barely see the towers and buildings lined in front of the massive water’s edge. Just then, pink-colored light shone in the sky and gave Arthur a message. “If you want to find it so badly, then let me take you to where you need to go.” 

Arthur's was thrown inside the Metaverse, which he thought was incomplete. It was just a castle hallway. He opened the door, noticed he was wearing golden, slim plate armor with matching helmet and sword, and checked out the old-style paintings on the wall. One of them showed an ordinary hilly road with Arthur's name on the bottom. The one next to it was the same, but it showed Quincy with his entire body covered in vines, sitting on a platform of sorts. Quincy's name was on the bottom. “Was I supposed to be on this painting, and yet since I'm here, I'm not present there? Are they stuck in the paintings? And what's with the vines?” Arthur asked to himself. He couldn’t even see the other, shadowed-out paintings further down the hallway. Then, when he didn’t even see it coming... 

“Why hello there!” 

Arthur staggered back when she spoke those words. “What brings you here?” he asked. 

She introduced herself as Impulse. She is an energetic, kind soul that took up a large blue sword bigger than herself. Blond hair, blue overalls and jeans and more hair decorations than you can name, she had the entire package. “I'm here to make you into a better person, and I'm gonna do that the only way I know how!” she exclaimed. 

She took him to a clock tower that she had boosted by running an arrow through the gears. The tower had a platform, railing included, that allowed for easy and safe navigation. 

“Welcome to the Tower of Initiative.” she said joyfully. 

[May 3rd: Tower of Initiative] 

“This'll be the place where you improve your skills. Each of the gears on this wall represent your duties in Neo-Lowercase, which is where that city is found. If you have a problem doing ANYTHING because of your lack of focus, then you come here and turn things around.” she explained. 

Arthur turned around and realized that Impulse was putting him on a hamster wheel. “I'm sorry, but I expected something far more interesting than a clock tower filled with gears that symbolize regular, everyday things that a real person can do without fail. Give me something challenging, like a journey through a foreign land or something! I get bored when I sit up in here and turn gears all day! Surely there must be something else in the Metaverse I can do! Come on…” 

Arthur began to walk out of the clock tower, eager for more things to do. Impulse tried to coach him to fix his issues, but Arthur would have none of it. He wanted more than what Impulse had to offer him, as a man of freedom. He ventured outside of it and found a dimension filled with varying hues of the entire rainbow. Connecting the walls together were cables of unusual colors, appearing to be made from the same stuff as the rest of the place. It was like something out of a comic, except with a distinctive style to it. As if influenced by graffiti works. But it was not graffiti. Arthur did not know what it was, and he did not care. He just wanted to explore, and little did he know that he had more of a connection to it than he thought. He was in for a hard surprise, however. A metallic worm flew at him and he instinctively took out his sword and beheaded it. However, the worm still managed to knock him off the platform. Impulse saw all of this and responded by jumping up and catching Arthur as he fell, making sure to land in a reasonable spot. Once she did, the worm fell next to them, bleeding and dead. Impulse checked to make sure Arthur was okay, but got confused when he started growing blue rabbit ears… 

[May 4th: Exhibit MASTER] 

After they both hit the ground, Impulse gets up and checks to see if Arthur's fine. Then, she notices a minor detail about him. “What's the matter? You seem to have grown something…” 

“Ah, nothing, it's just a minor.... scratch?” 

Arthur stared in amazement at his body: he had begun to grow fur on the left side! It was blue fur at that, and the Quincy painting he saw back in the hallway also had blue fur.… Either way, Arthur got up and looked past the horizon, seeing all the various… colors of the new world. He also saw the dead worm that he beheaded. He started to question why that worm looked so otherworldly. The metal making up its shell looked so alien. Arthur thought that there might be other enemies like that worm that would be tougher and stronger than that. 

“You know anything about this world?” he asks. 

“Not a thing. I have only been here for a little over a day. I never knew such an environment existed. I was only told about the clock tower.” she replies. 

“Who locked you up in that clock tower?” he asks. 

“Can't say. Before I asked what was going on, I was transported there and forced to install those gears. I noticed you refused to turn them, and I was wondering why you showed up with such behavior. I did not want to turn them either, being such a grueling task. But hey, I was out of ideas before you came along. When you refused to turn them too, I was starting to think that the gears were connected to something a little more… special. Like something was repelling us away from them. It IS the Tower of Initiative, so it has to do with people not wanting to complete their tasks as directed. If they turn the gears without fussing about it, then they can get something complete. I do not know what it is. All I know is that somebody HAS to turn the gears.” she explains. She sounds like she’s concealing a fact. Like she’s being bossed around by somebody. Arthur noticed this, but didn’t care much for now. 

“I'll do it.” he stated. 

"You WHAT?” she shouted. 

Arthur leaped back onto the platform he fell off and ran towards the large gears on the wall by following the guides on the walkway. He turned one, and it lit up. A techno voice said, "Gear Alpha now turning.” Arthur got confused until a large, glowing anthropomorphic green rabbit spawned on the premises and literally blew him away. Arthur and Impulse’s back-and-forth conversation was quick and energetic. 

“Arthur! Lead it back here and kill it!” 

“Why can't I just kill it in the clock tower?” 

“It's completely untouchable in there!” 

"How do you know that?" 

"Believe me, I tried! That is how I got in here, I was tasked to kill one of these things and activate the tower's gears! Only when I led it into Exhibit MASTER did I figure it out--" 

"Time out. That alien space looking place I landed in and fought that worm in is called Exhibit MASTER?" 

"Indeed, and that's where I destroyed monsters like that over there. Now lead it into Exhibit MASTER and eliminate it!" 

Arthur let the monster follow him on the way there and once it stepped outside the tower, the rabbit shielded its eyes, perfect enough for Arthur to kick it off the platform and have Impulse finish the job by cutting its head off. It disappeared without a trace. Their conversation was strategic and teamwork-centric. 

"How did the rabbit disappear and not the worm?" He brought up. 

"Real strange how killing enemies works. Maybe the worm is native to MASTER and thus doesn't vanish when it dies there!" She replied. 

"Real nice. What if I do this?" He states. 

Arthur drags the worm corpse up to the tower and sure enough, it vanishes. 

"I'm gonna figure this out. Just you wait. Right now, I have a place to go. Maybe this place will update itself when the time comes. I have more to do HERE than I do out THERE. Primarily, there’s a little bit of an interference out there I must take care of that’ll allow me to do a bit more in here." He says before departing. 

Just when Arthur was about to leave the Metaverse, he caught a glimpse of his reflection, and sure enough he looked exactly like Quincy! He was a bit surprised to see that happen, but he just had to get used to it. The mind can change, like everyone else. 

"Guess that's my new name now. Quincy. Did I take up this mantle when the world changed? Either way, I’ll get used to it. " 

He transformed into his Quincy self from back in the Metaverse when he arrived at the same water’s edge he was at before. 

"Guess it really is all animals." 

“Wait, hold on. How is she knowledgeable about the mysterious city?” 

[May 5th: Decisionary] 

Solution City: A massive metropolis of streets, skyscrapers, and gigantic crowds near the plaza. It is a whole lot more active than it has been, so most of the action takes place where the masses are less likely to notice. The meeting area is square in front of the plaza, in a cove protected by a gigantic clock arch that displays the time according to GMT –15 (EST). As such, the Archway Clock is an important landmark that people stand under every so often. The cove behind the arch also links to the rest of Solution City and its various locations. It is a popular tourist site, and as a result, many accommodations are made to support travelers coming to and from the city. 

“Listen closely to my words. I have a tiny badge in my hand, easily wearable. It is black, has a mysterious symbol on it, and can grant you all the power in the world. It's yours free.” 

“Is there a catch to this?” Quincy asks. 

“Hmm... You may lose something of value. Something you treasure most. Either way, you will not be going back once you take this badge. Do you accept?” 

Two voices play through Quincy’s head. “Don't. do it. Stay with what you know. If you grab this badge, something important WILL change, even if it's right in front of you!” 

“If you break this promise you made to yourself all this time ago, your entrance to Solution City will be most welcome to you. Now don't take that badge.” 

Quincy grabs the badge anyway, motivated by a powerful figure that left him with no choice. What was the guy gonna do anyway, hurt Quincy once he rejects the badge? He DID say Quincy was gonna lose “something of value,” but Quincy did not think it was gonna be that bad. 

It was. 

“Okay, I got the badge, now what?” 

A whole assortment of powerful tools called Programs are now accessible to Quincy for him to use at any time! There are 5 Programs to use: A projectile made of fire that is flung from the hands, a shockwave directed at the ground, a burst of wind that allows for fast travel in the air, a teleportation Program, and finally a weapon buff mechanic. That last one lets Quincy's base weapons (like his gun and melee attacks) get stronger. Quincy feels quite powerful with this new batch of weaponry! However... 

"Solution City! It's turning a bizarre shade of red!" 

Indeed. The clock at the front of the meeting area spun so fast it spawned a new type of enemy known as an Archangel Remnant. Remnants are enemies derived from the Partials that are stronger and smarter than their kin. This one was a knight with glowing red wings and armor. It looked tough, but it lacked peripheral vision. 

"You guys (The Archangel and the Lupus Remnants, which are wolves that transform into spears to harm their enemies, in addition to the ordinary bites and scratches) look tough. Too bad I am gonna have to rush through you for a bit. I'm in a real big hurry." 

Quincy uses his Shockwave Program, which destroys the Lupuses and cripples the Archangel. He ran inside the building, only to find everyone corrupted by the red influence that the Archangel was made from. 

"You know, this all had to happen because you picked my Eraser Badge. Besides, wouldn't you like to know how I even gave you that opportunity?" Maxis, Quincy’s new enemy, asked. 

"I'm more concerned about fixing this mess." Quincy stated. 

Quincy finds a Horizon Badge on a table in the living room of the meeting area, (it is green and it glows in the dark unlike Eraser Badges) but as he reaches for it, it slides on the table on its own and flies away from Quincy as he tries to reach it. Not even Wind Boost can propel him far enough up in the air to reach the Badge. Suddenly the culprit, Maxis 15, appears on the roof of the building, which is now covered in graffiti-like energy. Its inhabitants were enraged by Maxis' Influence Badge, which he powered up to its max potential. 

"So, what do you think? The Horizon Badge is quite powerful, but I'm gonna keep it on me before you think about what you've done." Maxis said. 

Quincy was too ticked off to even think, but at least he gets to release his anger on two Ravine Remnants (negatively influenced regular individuals. Whatever powers they had on them are improved, but if they DIDN'T have powers, then they would fall apart and turn into a regular Remnant, like a Lupus or an Ornitho (owl). 

"Don't worry about them. It's the ground you should be concerned about." He warned al three with a smile on his face. 

The ground has become an electrical circuit! Quincy jumped back with Wind Boost, knocking the Ravines aside. He then pushed them back outside with Wind Boost again, shocking them to the point where their influence was removed from them, freeing them from having to be harmed by Maxis' badge! They looked around confused before returning inside and thanking Quincy for his contribution. The two are both anthropomorphic animals, like everyone in Solution City (except a select few). 

"We have no time to waste, you two. We have to defeat Maxis." Quincy said with urgency. 

(Solid Deer. A white deer with black highlights. Have you seen one of those before?) 

"What about the Horizon Badge I left on the table-- (looks to said table) oh, it's gone." 

"Yep, Maxis has it and unless we take it from him there's no way to even hurt him. The Eraser Badge's arsenal is useless against Maxis." Quincy said. 

(Tall, slender cheetah. That was her, Shader Complex.) 

"Can we be of assistance?" She asked. 

"Well now, that'd be most sound. What abilities do you girls have?" Quincy asks. 

They showed them off when Solid Deer turned her fist into rock (Stone Punch) and slammed a Leporid Remnant (rabbit enemy) out of the window. Deer then turned around, picked up a glass spike, then threw it hard enough (Strongman Toss) to pierce an Archangel in the head, making it vanish instantly. Shader Complex then projected a rainbow shield around her and leaped into a crowd of Remnants. Her shield then slowed down time for a bit before detonating (Multicolor Fulmination), leaving Shader unharmed. 

"How long you've been using these?" Quincy asked curiously. 

"Long enough. I feel like these powers came from somewhere far. Maybe--" Solid Deer replied. 

"So, you just got these powers, you do not know where they came from, and now they're making you think you had them for a long time. Seriously, what's up with this new arrangement?" Quincy wondered. 

\------------------------------------------ 

[May 6th: Decisionary, Part 2] 

The meeting room did highly resemble a ballroom, but it was stylized with bluish-green highlights and lines streaking back and forth throughout the room. Quincy was too busy fighting Remnants to be amazed at the impressive size and detail of the meeting room. Fitting for the entrance to the rest of the city. There were also two doors on the left and right sides of the middle of the area that led to the stairways to the 2nd floor. Each side led to a different area. 

"Go to the second floor, there's too many Remnants here! It is on the left and right sides of the meeting room. I believe that defeating Maxis will clear the room of the enemies." Quincy commanded. 

Quincy darted to the left door, climbing up the staircase after. Everything was so richly decorated, and there were pictures of Solution City's most well-known duo, the Miracle Couple, hung on the wall. "I've seen those two before. Is there a reason they are so popular? Maybe it's a couple done right." Quincy mused to himself as he climbed his way up to the second floor, which is also ransacked with Remnants. He had to make it through this floor to make it to the third floor, which held the entrance to the roof. Quincy thinks that Maxis made it up there. In any case, he readied his Programs and shot a fireball at a Vulpes Remnant, pushing it aside. He smacked aside the others (Badge users can swipe, punch, kick, and block with greater efficiency than regular people. This is due to the badges improving on the user's strength and durability.) and set off for the third floor. The Remnants tried to drag him by his leg, but Wind Boost propelled him to the third floor, which got him met with 4 Remnants (Two Archangels, a Lupus and a Vulpes) alongside Maxis. 

"There's no stopping you, is there? I still have the badge you want, and you are not gonna get it until you make one last decision. I also want you to give up something else of value." Maxis challenged. 

"Which is?" Quincy asked furiously. 

"Give me that Solution Badge in your Pocket. You know, the one with the green Z on it. Give it to me and I'll--" Maxis demanded. 

Quincy simply equipped it and rained fireballs on the Remnants (Meteor Shower), destroying them all. This forced Maxis to retreat to the roof, where Quincy gave chase. They both met each other high above the plaza. Thankfully, nobody could see them. 

"I'm the one who rigged your decision to fall into my hands. I hid the Horizon Badge in the meeting room because I knew you would try to go for that one instead. When I found the Eraser Badge, I created Impulse with it and had her spin Gear Lambda to allow you to-- no, FORCE you to choose that black badge you have on. You can't take it off until you beat me, so there's no use trying." Maxis taunted. He wasn’t willing to let the Horizons Badge go anytime soon. 

Quincy threw a fireball at Maxis, to no effect. He then tried the shockwave thing. Still no effect. Finally, he took out his gun before the two girls showed up and stopped him from firing upon Maxis. 

\------------------------------------------------------- 

[May 7th: The Fight on the Roof and Exhibit MASTER’s Return] 

"We're not gonna let you fight Maxis without a little arrangement." Solid Deer said. 

“And what is that?" Quincy asked respectfully. 

"Our assistance." Shader Complex replied. 

Instead of letting Maxis monologue, the two girls run at him, badges equipped. Maxis simply summons a bunch of Remnants, but Quincy uses Meteor Shower to destroy them. Deer's attempts to smack him are met with Maxis kicking her off the roof. Her freefall and later collision concluded with a thud that the whole plaza could notice. Shader Complex meanwhile tries to approach him slowly, slowly enough so that Maxis can be distracted. "I don't know why you're approaching me so slowly. You could just go ahead and beat me while I'm just standing here..." Maxis taunted Shader Complex. "Actually, that's not my plan." Shader replied. Just then, Arthur teleported behind Maxis and carefully swiped the Horizon Badge from his coat pocket. Maxis saw this and tried to swing at Quincy. Quincy stepped back and had Shader restrain him while Quincy readied his hands. Maxis just flipped Shader over and put up his hands, predicting Quincy's attack. Swing after swing, the rabbit on two feet kept throwing punches. His attacks did not land, but he did not stop there. He grabbed Maxis' head and readied his snare. An explosion of colors, his badge gave off as Maxis flew back without a second thought. "You have done well, but this isn't the end!" Maxis commented around the bend. Quincy’s last move was a bit of a surprise as he whipped the waters about, creating a tide. With a wave and a whisper, the waters came hither and without a second thought Maxis was withered. "All you did to me was make my month weirder." Quincy said to a vanished Maxis. 

"So, this is a badge that works by rhyming in free verse, huh? Never would have thought that it would work that way. I don't really know what its powers are, but I will discover them as time goes on." Quincy mused. 

He did not have time left to contemplate as he got rushed into the Metaverse. His vision spun in front of him creating a rapid swirl of colors. Arthur/Quincy had returned to the Tower of Intiative and there she was. Impulse had transformed into Experiment Alpha which is a monstrous entity with purple wings and body, with Gear Lambda serving as her weapon, the Eraser Badge. This time it was far more powerful, able to create purple energy weapons like swords, spears, and cannons. Arthur’s Horizon Badge, however, had a unique ability on its own. "Why did you kill my master?!" Alpha cried out. Arthur did not care about that, given that Maxis AND Alpha are figments of his imagination, the former having willed himself into existence. Arthur started this off by summoning some wood spikes with the Horizon Badge. None except the biggest one hit Alpha, but she got up and retaliated with an energy spear. Arthur put up his arms and blocks hard as he can. He could not use Wind Boost because Alpha had his Eraser Badge. The area they were fighting in was rapidly shifting. None of the gears on the wall were ticking, but the gears that made the clock tower move were shifting intermittently to the point where the time on the clock was unreliable. Eventually, Arthur came to his stopping point and used his Solution Badge to activate the clock tower's Experiment Gears. The joint force of every gear moving at once stopped time right on its tracks. "See there? I knew I could not escape your overwhelming strength. That is why time is doing my job for me. Now, watch this!" Quincy explained. His Solution Badge lit up, and Crosswave Platinum appeared from behind Quincy with a bluish-green broadsword that had a stylized Z emblazoned on the cross guard. It was a hero's weapon for a hero's job. "Behold, the Solution Relics! Treasured by the Miracle Couple for years, these fine pearls were sealed up in the vault of the city. Only those who deserved to wield them were allowed to. I have been given the power to wield one of these relics, the Solution Sword. You may not see me perform this fatal strike on you at this moment, but you will feel every last second of pain I am about to inflict on you. I have all the time in the world." Quincy them took one quick swipe at Alpha. True to his words, Alpha could only see and feel his time moving, not hers. She was still stuck there in her attacking stance. Swipe after swipe Alpha could feel. Like getting cut with a knife hot enough to melt ice in 5 seconds. She didn't know that the Tower of Initiative was receptive to badges from Solution City. Maxis only told her to spin gears. Either way, Alpha was all the following: confused, defeated, heartbroken, saddened, and angry. This she could feel as she vanished. 

"And so, time moves once again." Quincy says. 

The time unfroze. It's a miracle: Exhibit MASTER revealed itself out of the front door to be more expansive than last time. Filled with rolling hills, psychedelic purple skies and an abundance of metallic wildlife, Quincy just had to go explore it. However, behind the joy of it all was an invisible wall with an ominous presence. Quincy couldn't see anything, yet he still knew someone was hiding. He confirmed his doubts when he shot the glass behind him. Once. Twice. Three times he fired his pistol. The glass shards that flew behind him revealed a similar looking figure to Alpha, but as a green wolf with a black-winged outline and body. "I've been active. Do you want to know more?" the figure asked with a grin so evil and a voice so deep and monstrous that even some of the metalloids in the background slinked away. It was so harsh to see some of those dangerous predators suddenly turn back and hide at the sight of such a fierce presence. Quincy got terrified himself, thinking that these predators weren't so bad. He didn't know about forces of nature like these running about. "Hey. You there. I've been waiting to see your face... AGAIN." he growled. Quincy nervously pointed his gun at the source of the voice. "I'm not here yet...!" Before Quincy could fire his gun at the figure, that wolf, Mozart II, appeared from the shadows and forced Quincy down to the ground. "Tell me your darkest secrets. I'll build them up with a foundation you'll NEVER FORGET!" The wolf guy had gone mad. Quincy was way too underprepared for this. He had previously seen the wolf a few times in Solution City and they even got along and became good partners. After he had vanished one day under unforeseen circumstances, Mozart went insane and dragged a perfectly innocent person down to parts unknown. Quincy could still hear his crying shrieks in the background. It unsettled him to the max. "Please, just stop..." he kept crying. It just turned Quincy off. Mozart did this to him all because he couldn't have his way with the world and turned to the worst part of the world to gain everlasting power. "I don't know what happened to you. You used to be a good person. What caused you to turn to the dark side so fast?!" Quincy questioned. "Your place doesn't have much value. I plan to torch it and bring it to ruin. If it wasn't for that bunny with the iron staff, though, I would have done so. What brought you to my domain?" Mozart explained and questioned. Quincy didn't want to respond, he only wanted to END Mozart. 

\------------------------ 

[May 8th: A Flash of Pink] 

The brink of death would not keep Quincy for long, however. Within a couple of seconds ranging on minutes, a new and colorful individual from nowhere appears from the shadows and kicks Mozart so hard that his armor briefly shrinks. "I'll do you like you did to that kind soul. I'll make sure you never become exposed again!" she shouted to him. Her entire body was coated in pink, right own to her eye color. This anthropomorphic wolf looked like the girliest thing ever made, and yet she had the aura of a fiercely protective woman. Like nothing could stop her from an act of heroism even if she had to brush with death for so long they could have a pep talk. All pink, all serious. Quincy had seen nothing like it! "Kind of a cliché line, don't you think?" Quincy responded. "Don't move until this monster is dead." the pink character said. All Quincy could see was pink ribbons here and there, flying past his vision. Mozart was getting himself handed to on a silver platter. Quincy thought that Pinky had wanted Mozart to feel every strike, tap, and ounce of movement she inflicted upon him. He was right. Within moments, Mozart was dead and Quincy was still trying to get up from Mozart's harsh feats of strength. 

“I'll tell you my name if you tell me yours." Quincy said.

"You may call me Variance. However, this is not the time for idle rag. We have to go." she said.

"Why?" he asked.

"I'll tell you later!" She shouted, dragging him by the arm. 

Quincy didn't care and still thought of her name as "Pinky". The two made it past the invisible wall and marched past some predatory metalloids. Pinky's graceful spinning counters and elegant fighting moves impressed Quincy a decent amount. He wanted to ask how she perfected the practice of going toe-to-toe with those fierce animals so well. He didn't give himself that opportunity, though. All he was concerned about was his next opponent. He DID catch a glimpse of a figure moving in the shadows. Quincy's mind was less focused on her trying to kill the local wildlife and more focused on the mysterious man. 

"I think I found our target." Quincy stated.

"And how do you think you did so?" a mysterious voice said in his ear.

Quincy staggered so far back that the man caught him and dragged him upward to the ceiling. Pinky had none of this and retreated to a "solid dimension" of sorts. All so that when Quincy finally made it to the Inhabitable Shelter up there above the Metaverse, he was already shuddering upon feeling all the menacing weight being placed on him. Like the sins of someone particularly despicable were gravitating his body towards the ground. Perfect for Pinky to unleash her counter-attack. 

"Do you know what you HAVEN'T done?" it said.

[May 9th: “That’s not my job."] 

"It has finally led up to this point. I've been trapping you in here, this very shelter, for 7 whole years." it said.

"Seven?! Has it really been that long? What was I doing for seven whole years?" Quincy asked.

"You have been staring at a screen." it replied.

"That couldn't be me. I wonder who exactly--" Quincy wondered for a second.

Then Quincy looked around. Sure enough, he saw a room filled to the top with electronics. The room was so small, it could only fit one person. That person walked on newspapers and toyed around with wires of all kinds. In the center was a screen that worked with everything in the room, including the TV antenna, the game consoles, the computer and even the DVD player. Surrounded by so much stuff, Quincy wondered what else a man could ask for. Then he realized that none of the rooms he has explored are even real. He really has been pacing around this wire-filled room for a decade. It got worse after that. When Pinky teleported inside the Inhabitable Shelter, she just stood there. Not even moving a muscle. She crossed her arms after sliding into the room. Quincy just HAD to ask why she was not doing anything. "Yeah, I've fought a lot of troublemakers. They hurt innocent people, they terrorized whole communities, they even threatened me multiple times. Encore, however, has a point behind his statements. By showing you this entire room, he is proving to YOU, not anyone else but YOU, that you have a lot of work to do. If you can just clear your head of all of this technology surrounding you and appreciate what you get, then maybe you can actually eliminate Encore." "Encore's pretty tough though! I don't even have to attack him to know that none of my badges work against him!" Quincy responded. "Well, you have to work for what you want, and what you want now is the Priority Badge. That badge has the power to defeat Encore, but if you want to obtain the badge, you have to do a LOT of stuff because it's locked behind an impenetrable lock. Locks like those aren't the easiest to crack. But if you want to, you don't have to make it so difficult. All you have to do is follow a simple set of directions. Just turn the gears." Pinky explained. "Wouldn't that lead to more powerful--" Quincy tried to say. "I'll help you." Pinky said. Quincy was shoved in a tight position. Encore, being who he is, rigged Quincy's soul so that when Encore takes damage, Quincy receives it back double. Encore loves it when Quincy suffers because then it will remind Quincy that the Shelter is the only way to stay alive. Except it isn't. Unfortunately, Quincy, under many, many, MANY different names has been kept in this loop for 7 years total ever since the beginning of the whole journey in 2013. There was only a time loop. No improvement. Even resetting the universe didn't prevent Encore from growing into what he is now. He's a part of Arthur/Quincy himself, meaning that he has always existed, no matter what form he took. Without a second thought, Encore took in everything and formed his own labyrinth out of his very being. He stored the Priority Badge in a lock like Pinky said it was. It was easy to find, but not easy to open. All Quincy had to do was change the way he did things and escape the Inhabitable Shelter. That wasn't easy, however. Not as easy as Quincy thought it was. First, he had to shut off the machines running in it just to unlock the door, and that required defeating the monsters hidden within. Fluency, Sightwords, Phonics and Literacy. Those were the 4. The screen was the final test, Academic. To influence the future, the present had to be controlled. 

The worst part was that Pinky couldn’t even SEE Quincy. They were separated by a wall connecting the Labyrinth from the Shelter. 

\---------------------------------------- 

First, Quincy entered the bizarre world of the TV Antenna. Everything there was white noise, with the occasional platform blocks to keep his footing intact. His assignment was the easiest one out of the whole Inhabitable Shelter. All Quincy had to do was make it to the main platform in the center. However, since his Erase Badge is gone, he cannot Wind Boost his way there. The blue blocks could only get him but so far with each jump. He had to time them carefully lest he fall off and warp back to the start while taking some damage. 

"Alright, this is Fluency's domain. How could such a task like this be so simple? Is he the most demanding thing in the world?" 

He was. Upon jumping off the last platform onto the main platform, a clone of Arthur's base form showed up dressed in a black jacket, white shirt, and black shoes. He rode on the platform in a motorcycle entirely made of metal. "Aren't you gonna say hi to the one keeping you up all night?" he said. His accent was unrecognizable to say the least. "I am only looking for one thing this summer and that's an all-night long party! You are free to join me and ride into the sunset together!" His motorcycle is 100% metal, with the option to transform into a sheet of armor enveloping Fluency, and a laser cannon that pierces everything including the walls. "Like my setup?" Fluency asked. "I didn't think you'd be this irritating." Quincy said to himself. In any case, he equipped his Solution Badge and went at the guy. "Why are you rushing at me?" Fluency said before getting hit twice by Quincy's fists. Fluency kicked Quincy back an inch. Quincy rushed at a blocking Fluency and used an electrical attack to disorient the guy. "I'm gonna use my power to the full now!" Quincy quipped as he charged up his Solution Badge. Fluency transformed his Steel River into a sword to fight Quincy's own Solution Sword with. Clash after clash. A swing, a block, a stab, and a parry. The two kept swinging at each other with blades bigger than they are. Quincy eventually took a step back and waited for Fluency to transform Steel River into something else. However, Fluency had a plan of his own and attached the laser cannon part of Steel River into the motorcycle part. Surprised but not fettered, Quincy readied his sword, jumping high into the air. He landed behind Fluency instead of his intended target, or so Fluency thought. The platform, though it had a guard rail, was not high enough for vehicles. The motorcycle tipped over, and Fluency fell to what is his death. Quincy got the job done by cutting Steel River in half, killing Fluency for good. 

"Well that's that. Stupid is what stupid does." 

As soon as he said that, he was booted out of the TV Antenna back into the newspapers. The Antenna blew up, dispelling a fourth of the TV static covering up the final test. The wires surrounding the rest of the electronics also vanished. "Next up: Phonics!" Quincy said to himself. 

[May 10th: Phonics: Delivery Estimate] 

A DVD Menu? Just a plain ol' DVD Menu, a blue cube with a disc in the background?! 

"You know what? I would rather stay here. I prefer to get comfortable and care about nobody but myself while I am cooped up in a world of entertainment. Because that is what babies do. Babies have everything to themselves; they care about nobody. And yet, when they treat everyone else around them like dirt, they do not get much else from their caretakers. No, I am not referring to those under 4 years of age. I'm referring to selfish people like YOU, Mr.--" 

Phonics, meanwhile, was destroying Quincy with every little course of movement. Black energy pillar of death. Sixteen arrows of darkness. A whole army of dark knights. An energy circle from where the darkest of monsters appear. Through and through, Phonics had the bases covered. Quincy exited the field and wondered what to do next. "Everyone keeps yelling at me to get up and do something…" he thought to himself. The Inhabitable Shelter was swirling around his field of vision. It got dizzying enough that Quincy tried to grab something to reorient himself with. Just when he grabbed the platform, his entire body froze. "What's going on? Why can't I move?!" Quincy thought. He tried calling out for help, but yes, his mouth also numbed up. Quincy was helpless. No way to beat Phonics with his badge set, no way to even move because of a curse that Phonics put on him. "…ou see….urt!" a voice called out from behind the glass. Quincy could barely hear it, for his ears have not numbed up yet. He mustered up all the strength he could to stumble over to where the voice was, for he could even see like an ordinary person. "…ow! Wha....ppened to you...ody?" the voice called out again. It was a stifled voice, but the closer Quincy got, the more he could make out the words. "I....I've been cursed...?" Quincy slurred. His mouth was numbed shut, but he could still speak to an extent. "Evidently. What you need is a badge for relief! Look over there, I gave you something." the voice said. Quincy could see the figure. He looked fairy-ish, with a chipmunk-like voice and everything. The yellow garment looked the part, too. Quincy felt a powerful influence coming from him, and it radiated from the Brightness Badge over behind him too. Quincy tried to move his arm, along with his leg. "One, two, one, two, one, two..." Quincy repeated to himself as he marched toward the badge. His curse was almost cleared! Quincy picked the badge up. He had already seen a stylized X and a neon-colored leaf. But that was nothing compared to this. It was a sun overlapping a lunar eclipse! With a name like the "Brightness Badge", Quincy knew that this badge had some amazing capabilities. Once Quincy gripped the badge in his paw, a mysterious energy flew out of him. He had almost lost his life force, but once he equipped the badge, he was normal again. Like he had just taken a jog outside and felt relieved. 

"Well, I better get going. What'd you tell me your name was?" 

"I'm Sheridan, and I'm trapped behind a glass wall with no way to get out. If you defeat all 5 of the villains, then you can free me. If you die out there, don't expect me to rescue you." 

Quincy went back inside the DVD player and confronted Phonics. He began his rampage again; Quincy noticed that a piece of a dead Fluency is inside of him. Anyhow, Quincy charged up his Brightness Badge and released a laser of sunlight (Solar Laser)! Phonics felt that through his dark armor. "Where'd you get that? Did that fairy give you a piece of his power?" Phonics shouted. "My secret." Quincy responded. Quincy went ahead to use these moves, in order: A few swings of a sword made of sunlight (SunKnight), a barrage of sunlight beams (Sunstorm), a rush of leaves with cutting power (Windy Whisper) and the cherry on top, the special. "Nothing up my sleeve!" Quincy said as he vanished. Then before anyone knew it, Phonics had fallen apart, bled profusely, and vanished. Quincy had used a special technique called the Fast Lane. You travel swift and yellow dots appear behind you. Then you attack so fast that nobody can even see how fast you are moving. Like a blur. Those yellow dots track your movement, so you can teleport to any one of those dots if you are done blitzing around. 

"One down, three to go!" 

Next up: The Video Game Machine, with a guest appearance from Sightwords! 

[May 11-12: Visitation from a Mystery] 

The battle with Sightwords was not much. The guy spent a lot of his time talking Arthur down, while Arthur dismantled him and his tank bit by bit with his Fast Lane technique. Sightwords, who resembles Fluency like Phonics did, did not really do much in terms of fighting. He was fought in a pink environment with lots of trees and hills, also pink. It is a past location. 

When Arthur came back, he asked Sheridan “Did I rush through my work? Sightwords felt effortless.” 

"Not at all, really. In fact, there wasn't really much to go over." 

"Just another talkative loon, huh?" 

"Encore has plenty of them. Anyways, your friends are in deep trouble." 

"How deep?" 

Pinky and her friends were fighting Encore's minions in the final room of the labyrinth, in view of the entity himself. None of them could damage the minions straight up. Reverse Dog is a canine in a green space suit with helmet. His attacks include ray guns, energy beams and a jetpack on his back for more range of movement. Delta comes back with a fresh look (but still a fox). She wears 4 Delta Rings, two on each finger, and her cards, all 3,000+ of them come back in full force. All of this from three different allies and none of them can fight Encore's army. They are forced to run away and wait for Arthur to save them. That he was able to when Sheridan pointed at Arthur's Brightness Badge. That is when it started glowing. With a bright and intense light, Arthur started charging up a type of energy known as Prayer Force. It surrounded his hands, turning them golden. Although he could only use this immense power for 15 minutes, it was the only thing that could stop Encore and his minions. They are weak to the power of the Gate of Prayer. Arthur tested this out by leaping on the computer tower and conducting Prayer Force through it, destroying it from the inside. Its master, Literacy, was found dead inside the wires having been blown up from the inside. He looked identical to Fluency and Sightwords. 

"Harsh fate there, buddy." Quincy said after hearng that story.

"I'll charge up your Prayer Force for you on the way to the final test. Now that you are ready, I'll lead the way to the arena, where several of Encore's minions await you. It's rather ominous and edgy down there, though." 

"Who said I wasn't ready to take on an entire army?" 

"That's the enthusiasm I expect from a hero." 

The final test? More like a final arena. This open-wide area was so dark only a small fraction of vision was allowed. Darkness thrived in this place. A mysterious flag-like symbol in the center could be seen. It was red, white, and gray. Quincy waited for his combatants patiently. Not a sound could be heard for at least 5 minutes. 

\------------------------------------------------- 

[May 13th: Fool for You] 

There was a voice. “Hey! I know you are irritated right now because nobody is paying any attention to you. Right now, your source of power is heavily guarded in a different environment. I decided to strap him in to prevent you from doing anything else but facing the devil.” It was a clone of Arthur that looked drastically variant from the one and only. His mantle was in tatters, he hovered in the air like a superhero and he spoke with a mocking tone of vocalization. His face was also concealed by the void. "You can't hide crucial information from someone that can read minds, you know. I already know that you're only satisfied by what comes to you and to you only. You're happy because you know that you're about to receive two things, two items of steep value, right when you want them. This isn't too hard to figure out. You don't have to treat everyone like garbage to cement your pride. In all honesty, you CAN change..." 

"But I see no reason for you to." Exciter said. 

Quincy took in those words and nearly collapsed as a result. Exciter summoned 4 crystals, all of them green because it's one of Quincy's favorite colors. He took the chance to use those jewels to slam Quincy up against the wall, cracking his Brightness Badge. Quincy couldn't muster the strength to call upon the Prayer Force. Thus, Exciter shot all manner of firepower at Quincy, which taxed his chances to get back up and take down Exciter. Exciter was seemingly a terrorizingly eldritch member of Encore's military, and he does NOT take prisoners. In fact, once he acknowledges he is close to erasing somebody, he will take all opportunity to murder them without delay. He is not somebody to be messed with. Quincy didn't feel all that great either because what Exciter said about him was all true. He WAS a painfully selfish creature. His pride exceeds his own body weight, and he has a genuine problem with it. In fact... 

"So are you done trying to use others for your own benefit?" Exciter said to Quincy.

"Been that way a long ti--" Quincy replied.

"I'm not talking to you. In fact, I wasn't even aiming for you or referring to you." 

"Wait, what?" 

Yes, Exciter was talking to another fragment of Quincy: his viewpoint! The one watching all the things going on right now and feeling all the better for it, because he's not currently going through these events as they occur! "Why would you need MY attention?" the viewpoint said. It's a part of Encore's influence that found its way into Quincy's system. "Leave the guy alone. He's had way too much to deal with because of your actions. If you are tampering with his heart, I will find a way to cut you out of the deal." Exciter said. "Wait, you're a good person?" Quincy asked. "Good person? Quincy, I'm your sense of justice. My name is Exciter, and the final test was merely a secret test of character. You passed it successfully, but now that I know that Encore is influencing your actions, we will need to take action." Exciter explained. "How long have you been trying to help me out?" Quincy asked. "Since 2013. I had a different name back then. Sheridan's my helpful partner. We coordinated this test together, and he trusted me enough to willingly get trapped in my Nullifier. This is exactly how much we wanted to test you to see if you really were like that Encore guy. We're not out to harm you in the slightest." Encore said. "Oh. Well then why were you labeled an enemy?" Quincy asked. "Encore hates my guts substantially. That screen was the only way to prevent my full power from being realized. With that..." Exciter explained. 

He then used a metal chain-like whip to exorcise Encore's influence from Quincy's system. While Quincy regenerated from the severe strain put on him (that influence connected itself to his soul, you know) Exciter fought the new enemy, Expander over the course of 5 minutes. All Quincy could see was crystals flying here and there, blasts of energy thrown at the two combatants, and a heated battle between two heavy waves of force that eventually led to Expander being blown up from the inside. This allowed Quincy to fully regenerate his life force and freed Sheridan from the Nullifier. 

"Now, where's the exit?" 

Exciter punches a hole in the wall hard enough to break the TV screen, putting an end to the Inhabitable Shelter for good. The three themselves in the final leg of the assignment: The Weavy Warren. 

[May 14-15: Encore, Where Light Shall Not Shine] 

The Warren was separated into 5 distinct rooms, all marked by Greek letters. Each room required 3 things. Defeat the enemies, solve the puzzle, then open the door and walk the pathway to the next room. This is topped off by a unique Egyptian atmosphere. The rooms are as follows: 

Alpha Ravine 

Exciter shows off his skills here as the crystals disorient the foes with lasers that bounce off the gems and surfaces. Exciter's melee combat isn't bad, either. Sheridan's sunlight works well here for solving the puzzle: reflect light from the window into the solar panel to open the door, which is powered by solar energy. Sheridan had to wait till the other guys were done with the enemies, then just point his finger at the door's solar panel, which is high up in a location that would have been a bit difficult to reflect light onto with the mirror on the table. The trio walk down the corridors to enter... 

Beta Caldera 

The puzzle here is much easier than Alpha's: Defeat the enemies, then toss one of their dead bodies into the actual crack in the ground on the right side of the room. The crack was big enough to fit an adult man, so it was certainly big enough to fit these inhuman-looking dog things in there, too. This time, Quincy handled the preparation - and with such deft, too! He pulled out his Solution Sword, infused it with a bit of Prayer Force, and slashed one time. He never moved from his initial position at all. His strike launched the Encore Dogs all the way to the right side of the room, dumping them in the crack! The door opened upon being presented this sacrifice (why would Encore sacrifice his own dudes?) and the following pathways led our protagonists to.... 

Gamma Fault 

The puzzle here was much harder than the other two. This time, the heroes simply had to survive for 3 minutes against three Encore Knights. Keep in mind that none of the ideals could injure the Knights. At all. One touch, and the timer had to be reset. Naturally, there was a ton of dodging. However, Sheridan AND Quincy had an idea. Quincy summoned Crosswave Platinum - which wasn't lost when Exciter exorcised Encore's influence from him - and used it to carry the three into the ceiling, keeping them there for all 3 minutes. "Who said abusing loopholes couldn't be fun?" Quincy remarked. The door opened, and Crosswave let go of the three as they ran in the door quick as they could. The next room, which wasn't too far off, carried the name.... 

Lambda Crevasse 

This is what the final test should have been to Quincy. Thirty Dogs, Three Knights and one Goliath. A full gauntlet against Encore's worst. Sheridan handled the Knights, Exciter handled the Goliath, and Quincy was left to use his Prayer Force-infused Solution Sword to destroy the Dogs, and that he did. One strike after another, Quincy slew half the army in only a few seconds. This royally impressed Pinky and her friends, who were hiding out in the corner of the pitch-black arena. Sheridan mostly put up a shield and countered the Knights' attacks. He knew that the Knights wouldn't take a whole bunch of damage from Sheridan's attacks, so he opted to redirect the damage from theirs right back at them! It was a great strategy, as the Knights didn't know what to do. They had to either attack Sheridan and risk getting hurt, or not attack him at all. Sheridan just simply impaled all three with energy spears. It worked good enough for him anyway. Exciter's fight with the Goliath is the story of legends. The two were going at it harder than Jack's struggle with the Beanstalk Giants, and after their respective fights Quincy and Sheridan watched him square up against the titan. Exciter's crystals couldn't do much to harm Goliath, so Exciter went for the quaint method and soared in the air. The two others could feel the vibrations from their impacts through the ground, and it proved to be a spectacular experience. Quincy compared it to watching an action movie in a theater and feeling the sound effects through the advanced sound systems embedded in the walls! It was genuinely moving, seeing a justice-fueled warrior casually shrugging hits from a monster that looked like it could take on the King of the Monsters himself in a one-on-one! Yes, Goliath was really that big! But nothing impressive lasts forever, and so Goliath came to a swift yet satisfying end by Exciter, who looks incredibly battered up from his tussle. "Don't ask. We'll pick up the pieces when we get to Encore." he said. The final corridor was lengthy and winding. Yet, once the absolute darkness (or eigengrau) kept getting closer, they knew exactly how close to Encore they were getting. It only took several steps to get there, but then Pinky and her friends caught up. 

"How rude of you to just leave us behind after we were so severely beaten by that man Encore!" Pinky cried out.

"Oh, my bad. What's your name?" Exciter inquired.

"Most people call me Pinky. I don't mind a thing." she explained. 

"Good thing, too. Variance doesn't roll off the tongue as easily. You should have seen her face when we called her Pinky because of her color!" Reverse Dog joked.

“That's racial profiling and you know it." Pinky said, not amused.

"I was unfortunate enough to make that mistake. Not to her face, though." Quincy said.

"We're here for the same reason you are: to cleanse our world of that man called Encore. We could really--" Delta said.

"No problem. Any situation like this can be handled by the five of us together!" Quincy exclaimed.

"Encore's just ahead of us!" Reverse Dog pointed out.

The five heroes look ahead to the final hallway, which is so pitch black not even Sheridan's natural sunlight can pierce it. The group maneuver through it as if Sheridan wasn't there at all. The feeling that darkness was crawling up on them got ever stronger as they marched to the final room. Encore was just ahead. All 5 of them endured 7 years of his constant influence. Now it was time to put an end to it for the last time. 

Meanwhile Quincy took on his Arthur form the closer he got to the final point... 

\-------------------------------------------------- 

The final room was some crossroads. Interconnected to each other intertwined by buildings and bordered by trees. There were traffic lights and parked cars, typical street fare. At the center of it all was the man himself, Encore. As soon as the five found him through the buildings, they all tried to rush after him. However, Encore knew he wasn't susceptible to Prayer Force at all, so he willingly waited until the heroes got to him in the center of it all. Then as they all drew their weaponry... 

"Back up! He's about to do something!" Pinky warned.

"Indeed, you won't be able to damage me normally. So, I'll make sure you won't." Encore stated.

He put his hands up, organized 6 gears around him, then projected a negatively colored field. Then, time stopped in place. Everyone froze in place. All the clocks on the buildings, be it the church down the street, or the watch shop in the corner of the crossroad, they all froze in place. Everything was gray-colored. Everything. Except Arthur, who also had something like that. He isn't sure how he is able to move around in frozen time, but when he got that impression, he took advantage of it to send Encore flying when he tried to kill Pinky. That's when Encore got out a sword of his own and clashed with Arthur. Then he used a technique called the Flicker Second, which is where Encore skips time forward by a second to swiftly move across the battlefield in record time. Arthur didn't see it coming and flew down the street once Encore kicked him in the back. Arthur grabbed a traffic pole and swung on it to regain his composure. Then, he tried a similar trick to evade a charging Encore. "You dare use my own techniques against me, Arthur?" he asked in a menacing tone of voice. "What? I can't hear you!" Arthur responded on top of a building. "If you take a step, you're gonna get ripped apart by the strands of time! I have set a trap for you!" Arthur called out. Encore didn't know what he meant by that, but just in case he WAS being set up, Encore laid a web of his own energy all around the battlefield. "That's not gonna have an effect on the web I have set up myself, Encore." Arthur thought to himself. "In that second that I teleported; I laid a 45-feet web of Prayer Force bolts all around your battlefield. I managed to calculate how large it was based on the diameter of the trees bordering it. There's nothing past those trees, and it's a 45-foot walk from the bike store in the east to next to the convenience store in the west. Since your arena was that large, I knew exactly where to place my webs. I did it so fast you didn't even notice my trap!" Encore rushed after Arthur, and the latter activated his Prayer Force trap. However, Encore's force traps activated then, too. They were dissolved by the Prayer Force webs, but not before the webs' force beams were blocked by Encore's webs. To counter this, Arthur engaged in a sword fight in the air between him and Encore that was mostly a contest of who had the best Flicker Second. Their flow of movement gave Arthur the will to lay more Prayer Force traps around the areas they fought in. His plan was to blow them all up just before time unfroze, which would trap Encore in his own dimension of frozen time and blow him up. Arthur DID hear from Encore that he was immune to Prayer Force, but no such minion of his was immune to it, so why should he? It's an indicator that Encore, who is Arthur's heart by itself, refuses to change. Encore is so steeped in his willingness to only obey what he says is practically rooted in his very being. He's no safe one to stand by. The two kept swinging at each other, using every ounce of their fiber to counter and parry the other's blows. Crosswave Platinum then appeared to Encore, forcing the latter to Flicker Second away from him AND his attacks. The movement of time, no matter how brief, decreased the time left for the Force bombs to detonate. Encore didn't realize this and searched for every means necessary to avoid Crosswave Omega. "Your Soul Guardian... it repulses me! Go look for some other means necessary to--" Encore said. "I have already sealed you inside your own pool of selfishness. Your 1-day timer for our battle will now be severely shortened as I pull back the curtain on what I have done throughout the 27 times we've rushed through the City of You. Once you have seen the results on focusing too much on yourself, you will bow down to the power of compassion, forgiveness, patience, self-control, and perseverance. You won't be able to escape this." Arthur said aloud. He had Crosswave Omega close the boundaries of time on Encore. Encore's own fields of darkness began crawling up on him as the corrupted side of Arthur's heart began to thrash around and clutch his head on pain. Defeated, shattered, broken. Encore goes down like a baby throwing a tantrum as his own world collapses on him. It's a representative of pride before a fall. Arthur knew his own heart would shatter to pieces, but he didn't feel bad about it. He was going to mature into a truly amiable piece of work. 

Back in Exhibit MASTER, the explosion covering up the City of Encore was large enough to be seen from the perspective of the Tower of Initiative. Arthur had already exonerated the warriors preserved in the passage of the universe out of the fulminating location. 

Encore's actions flashed across his city's demise as he reviewed his past actions. He manipulated a person only known as "The Denizen" to Encore because he viewed her as nothing more than a conduit to buy all the things he could ask for. A mother figure turned into someone's pawn! How despicable could that be? Jealousy makes up half of Encore's system and it showed through his lack of appreciation for Soul Canvasses that weren’t his, but that did not matter since Encore was outdated. The city blew up, and Arthur, who was morphing back to his Quincy form, felt an undying illness in the center of his body. Once he landed in Exhibit MASTER, the rest of the warriors came to check on him. He turned around and revealed a pink energy flowing out of him. He was not used to this yet, so it was steadily killing him. 

There was a cure, though. 

[May 15: Pink Sun and the Reality Warper] 

Arthur took a journey to Solution City as Quincy. As soon as he let everyone else know where he was going to receive his treatment, he left for the other world. Instead of marching to the plaza, he took a left and was introduced to an innovative environment. It had looked like the sky itself could be walked on. However, in the center of the new area was a polyhedron with a thousand sides. A pink chiliagon (thousand-sided polygon) bordered by what appeared to be metal strands in the middle of nowhere. For some reason, it had an influential effect on Quincy. He couldn't move at all. The pink force flowing from it left him so in awe that he couldn't budge a muscle at all. It started to affect Crosswave Omega, who sailed off, outside of Quincy's expanse. However, Omega did not fade from Quincy's sight. The waves of energy that the Pink Sun gave off were immense, yet they gave Quincy a light and airy feeling. "That couldn't be the radiance driving itself deep into my soul, could it?" he thought. The Pink Sun wanted something from Quincy, however. It wasn't doing him any harm. It was an offering. Pink Sun wanted someone eliminated. Someone it claimed could mold reality without even lifting a finger. This person was highly dangerous and closely resembled Quincy. When the Pink Sun was done appearing to Quincy for the first time that night, it departed and left Quincy staring at a nighttime highway. None of the cars were hitting him at all. It was like a blur to him. Then, a voice rang out from behind him. "I see you found the Pink Sun. Are you ready to uphold this responsibility?" 

Fluorescence. 

"As you can now see, your Guardian has left you precisely because it is not yours. It is the Guardian of a truly selfish and careless heart motivated by jealousy of others. Yours is nowhere to be found as of now because you haven't grown yours. I want you to behold the grace and symphony of a reality warper like me." 

Fluorescence rips off her (yes, HER) face unveiling a completely altered appearance underneath it. She then charges towards Quincy and teleports them both to a different location before Quincy can even react. Crosswave Omega, now rebranded as Jealousy Central, doesn't move from its initial position as indirect hit after indirect hit is landed on Quincy. Quincy couldn't even get next to Fluorescence because Central kept him away. Central was immune to about every form of damage imaginable. This metallic fiend was unstoppable from a one-sided point of view. An endless ocean. The limitless boundaries of space. The milky white caverns of the Moon. Shining reflections of a 5-carat world. Indefinite ends of an open sky. Teleporting with every hit caused the strands of reality to bend and twists, eventually unfurling the true form of the battle arena: a psychedelic array of moving effects. Blobs of trippiness moved about in the background, and it could make a man dizzy in mere seconds. Guardian-less and hopeless, Quincy just had to form a plan that could turn this battle on its side. 

[May 16-17: Reality Shaper Fluorescence] 

"I have already made my decision. I have a distinct Guardian. It can teleport anything thrown at it or me into another dimension. Considering you have hundreds of these at your disposal, I guess it would not hurt if you launched an attack on me. Hit me with your worst." Quincy goaded Fluorescence. Feeling taunted, Fluorescence had Jealousy Central launch 100 arrows from the Guardian's Wicked Quiver at Quincy. In response, Quincy brought out his new Soul Guardian, Tolerance. Four double helixes arranged in a human-like shape. It's a Guardian unlike any other that Quincy has seen before! Tolerance saw the arrow attack and had just the right response for it. Without saying a word, Tolerance projected a purplish-black field. The arrows froze in their position and got sucked into the parallel dimension, one by one. However, Tolerance's grip was losing its foothold. "Ah, don't worry, I got this under wraps." Quincy thought to himself as he resorted to breaking open reality itself to prevent the arrows from getting any closer. The arrows were very painful to get hit by, considering they're made of the same force that gave Encore his shape and power. They were going to drag Quincy down and he was NOT having it at all. Quincy continued to leap and bash his opponent, striking her with the power of his badges until it was done. Notably, despite his new Encore Badge being equipped, he never used it once. He had plans for that one, but he's not going to reveal them just yet. He's waiting for Fluorescence to make her next move. 

"17 more universes to go!" she said as she spun Jealousy Central around and piled up a psychedelic mix together out of her current set. All Quincy had in his mind was anticipation. He knew that she wasn't controlling her dimension(s), but HIS. 

It all came to a head when Fluorescence piled 6 dimensions at once into each other. "Haven't you realized that your Guardian never hit me once? I'm standing here seeing this psychedelic backdrop you're creating, and you have successfully failed to realize that I've dragged you into my dimension of storage! Now, aren't you going to sit back and watch as Tolerance nullifies anything you did so far? Up to this point you've been wasting your time with those arrows. They're all gone thanks to Tolerance. See you in a bit." Quincy's harsh words echoed back to Fluorescence as she and her Guardian attempted to undo the reality-warping effects. They strived to keep their balance, but ultimately, their power got out of hand as they tumbled into Tolerance's storage unit and collapsed due to Quincy tossing his Encore Badge in there beforehand. Tolerance closed the barrier and let Quincy out of the area quite silently. "Quite a show, wasn't it?" Quincy remarked. He could still see Solution City when he turned around. Was he in the plaza the whole time overviewing these weird events? What was this Pink Sun, and why did Quincy feel its presence everywhere he went? Quincy feels the need to jump into the Metaverse to figure things out, so he warps there. Again, nobody in the plaza can detect a thing. 

\----------------------------------------------- 

[May 18: World of Feeling] 

The Metaverse by then only consisted of a single room with a door in the wall. That room then darkened to reveal a night sky. "I JUST got here, and now it starts acting up? Where's Exhibit MASTER?" Arthur cried out. "Why do I look human now? I only displayed that trait when I fought Alpha and returned from Encore! ...I feel like I only use whatever form applies to the current situation." he thought. "Right you are. When the scene changes, you change. It doesn't work like that in Solution City because it's hardcoded that you're an animal over there." The Pink Sun called out. "You can read minds, too?" Arthur said. He appeared as that animal-human hybrid from his encounter with Impulse. "Look around you. What do you see?" Pink Sun asked. "I see a night sky with dozens of pink stars in space. What does it mean?" Arthur responded. "This is just a few of the massive amounts of influence we possess in the world. Those pink stars in the background are clusters of Endear Force. Just like how stars form out of rock and gas, we have our own star system. I am in the center of it, and thus I control the Endear Force used by those on both sides of reality. Your power goes into flux a lot. To use it effectively, you must balance that power. Even though Endear Energy is enormously powerful, its combat usages are non-existent. It's more of a healing device than anything because it's driven by feeling, rather than motion. You must feel it as well to make it work right. All this time you have been holding back on that power. All that time you've been attempting to harness it has been blocked by your attitude towards things like this." Pink Sun explained. "Things like what?" Arthur asked. Before he knew it, he was holding a rabbit in his arms. "Huh. You KNOW what my favorite animal is. Is that linked to my transformations?" Arthur asked. "Quite possibly. Go and get a checkup in Exhibit MASTER before you come back to me telling me how much you've improved. Those rings you're going to see later will test your strength well. Remember. The keyword is balance. You have to balance it!" Pink Sun said before warping Arthur to Exhibit MASTER, which is now freely explorable after so long! Arthur took his chance to find out what lies beyond the walls of the first stages of Exhibit MASTER. The Gears followed him; they made the brand-new world appear before Arthur's eyes... 

It vaguely resembles a city. "Those pink particles that the Pink Sun showed me are becoming clearer to me now. I can see them!" Arthur exclaimed as he reached out to touch one. The balance wasn't corrected within Arthur's system yet, so when he touched it all the force within that one star overloaded Arthur's soul and launched him back a dozen feet. "That didn't just happen right now. I should have harnessed it for myself!" Arthur exclaimed when he ended up in Starlight's dimension. Starlight is the definitive version of Tolerance that came with a few new abilities! "What did you see, Starlight?" Arthur asked curiously. With a metallic voice, Starlight replied with, "Arthur, I saw double a dozen images of small animals. The images were bordered by pink, ornate frames." 

"You didn't see a star, but rather images? What makes you so different?" Arthur replied. 

"I can see behind the stars. Those images are the forces behind the feelings. You are repressing those feelings because you feel that it would take a bite out of your maturity. I know this because I'm a part of the soul. What's behind those stars is driving you crazy. That's why you flew back; your body and mind couldn't take all of it at once. To develop your skills further, you will need to stop holding back on receiving power. Put yourself in a relaxed state in the next world." Starlight said as it pushed Arthur back into Exhibit MASTER. 

"Don't look at me, look at the arrow I'm holding. It's molded out of Endear Force. If you can relax your mind and catch the arrow without difficulty, then you can efficiently master your usage of it." Starlight said. 

The Soul Guardian threw the arrow at Arthur once. He dodged it, forcing Starlight to teleport the arrow back to him. He threw it again. Arthur caught it and flew back a few feet. "It's not working!" Arthur complained. "Are you relaxing your mind?" Starlight asked. Arthur wouldn't do that, for it meant taking the brunt of all those images at once. He wasn't prepared for that event. All he could think about is exploring more of Exhibit MASTER. Too bad for him; Endear Force was the main attraction. 

"Alright, get hit by this one and I won't save you from flying this time." Starlight warned. He slung the arrow, it flew. Arthur caught it, relaxed his mind, and stopped. 

"What's going on?" Arthur asked. He had caught the arrow flawlessly, but now his body had pink stripes running down to his feet. "Starlight, this isn't what I intended to go through..." he said. His mind cycled through the 28 different images that Starlight talked about. "These are the forces that run Exhibit MASTER. You can see them, can't you? How do you feel? If you feel like you're about to rail, it's about time you studied up on this a little more. The force is supposed to heal, not harm. If it's harming you, then you're a little special." Pink Sun's words echoed to Arthur as he saw the world change color repeatedly. "Don't let go of the arrow!" Starlight called out. 

It would only be a matter of time before Arthur made it to the next world. 

\----------------------------------------------------------- 

[May 19-20: Cuteness Requiem Part 1] 

"I think I have found my placement." 

"Feel around for the environment. Know your powers and deck so. Adjust based on your foe's frequency. Then you will find your true power. Endear Force is not to be trifled with. When you gripped the arrow in your hands, you agreed to take on this floaty challenge. One where your gut tells you where to go and what to do. Today, you will finally harness this energy." 

Radiant light pierces the darkness and reveals the Reverse World! The same as Exhibit CITY, but with a darker pink color than usual. Arthur's transformation became more plain as he fully assumed his animal figure from Solution City. "What? This time it's permanent!" Arthur exclaimed. "Indeed. We have held back on saying this for the longest time, but this decade-spanning force that we control is motivated by cuteness. If you had fur, then this entire process would be much easier for you. It is more of a reward than anything. Look! Whatever is left of your human form is peeling away! Now learn this power with us." Pink Sun echoed. 

Arthur now forever takes the reigns of Quincy. The arrow he gripped has turned into a deck of 49 cards. "Follow the instructions I will give you." Pink Sun echoed. Quincy shuffles the cards, looks at the images on them for 5 seconds, then reshuffles the deck as he deals each card. The cards float in the air, displaying different animals with distinct colors. The animals are anthropomorphic, and they all pose differently. They appear to be drawn. "Each of these cards will grant you one of their powers. Use them very wisely on your next test." Pink Sun echoes. Quincy collects his deck and reshuffles them once more. He then riffles his cards, does a reverse shuffle, tries a corgi shuffle before resetting back to a reverse shuffle, and then throws the cards out in the distance. Randomized and distinct, each 20 of those cards give out a foreign light that Starlight can see from Exhibit CITY. Purple, green, white, and orange. They all flash that certain color before reversing themselves. "These are alternate versions of your cards that carry a more potent influence on the dealer. Reversing an Endear Card carries all sorts of side effects, from the good to the bad." Pink Sun echoed. "What am I fighting now?" Quincy asked. "Nobody. You will be thrown in the Fleeting Desire chamber. That is where you will master your power and become another individual. Someone better and more competent." Pink Sun echoed. "Remember, your inner self will tell you what's natural and what's not. You will wake up refreshed and moving about as a new person. Enter the next world!" 

Quincy's journey was a spectacular one. Stars filled the area and gave Quincy a sense of floatiness. His desires came to life before him manifesting as silhouettes, each color standing for a certain thing hidden beneath the heart. "It's the Reverse Frequency. If I can match this with whatever this "Cuteness" witchcraft is, then I'll get a head start. It's 4 on 1 today." Quincy thought. 

Then he was slipped a mysterious ring. "Starlight, you sneaky devil..." Quincy said to himself as he pumped his fist. The shockwave that appears destroys the silhouettes and gives him an almighty burst of power. It was something that he's never quite felt before. Pink stripes lined down his body, and he was granted a new badge (The Endear Badge). It was a miracle, too. By the time he completed his test and warped back down to Exhibit CITY, he was already capable of more things than his old self was. For starters, the Remnants in front of him on the street didn't see his Reverb Lightning coming. Pink lightning bolts sprung from his fingers as he concentrated on his Endear Force abilities and fired the current. The Remnants couldn't process the sheer power of it all and vanished in puffs of dust. "So, this is the way this works. I wonder why this power is so legendary..." he said to himself. He had stared at his hands for a solid 30 seconds wondering why he could do that. Then he pulled his tunic back and saw three badges equipped on his body. Horizons Badge, Solution Badge, and the Endear Badge. The three together, when mastered, could conquer about anything. Except while Quincy mastered the first two, the Endear Badge had some hidden potential. He couldn't just control lightning. He could use plenty of elemental forces, like ice and fire. It just came down to WHEN he could use them. He certainly had the mental capacity to fire off a few things, but when he looked to his right and saw the gallery of card decks he could potentially get, he knew he was lacking a thing or two. This isn't even counting the Endear Ring he was slipped, which is how he fired that lightning so flawlessly. 

"Starlight, it's about time we decided to upgrade ourselves further." 

[May 21-22: Cuteness Requiem Part 2] 

Quincy took a minute to examine the several types of cards lying on the desks here and there. They all featured different images on the front, some on the back as Reversed Cards. "Starlight, have you seen these before?" Quincy asked. "Not at all. I'd recommend avoiding the ones with red borders. Those contain Reverse Frequency power that tends to have a strong influence on the particularly weak-willed." Starlight reports. "Which ones can I pick up, then?" Quincy asked. "Grey or blue borders. Nothing more than that. Reverse Frequency can come when you least expect it." Starlight answered. Just then, that green fox from earlier, Delta, descends from the air in front of the card registry. "We've been looking for you for 20 solid minutes! When we got wind that a new place in the Metaverse was created, Pinky led us to your location!" Delta called out. Quincy had already hidden behind one of the walls, the cards that he registered floating in the air. They looked like they were about to fly into Delta's body and cut her up. Delta didn't move a muscle. She and the rest of her group waited outside for him to show himself. Quincy slightly moved from the corner and asked, "Who could you possibly be?" 

"We're your friends from months past. I'm Delta, the one that used to control Delta Force," she answered. "Behind me is Pinky, who is Conduit in a different form. She assumed a new identity after getting warped on her way to the new world. Next to me are two new ones, Reverse Dog and Exciter. Reverse Dog is a refugee from an entire universe that collapsed on itself and restarted anew. As such, it took him a while to get here. He's an entirely new person! Exciter, as you may know, is your sense of justice given form. I think he knows you the most out of all of us." 

Quincy stepped out from behind the wall. "Ah, so these are the guys I've been looking for all along! I wonder why it took me so long to find you here..." Quincy said. "This is my Soul Guardian, Starlight. Do you guys have one?" The four all shake their heads. They don't have a clue as to why Quincy has one but not them. "Maybe you'll get one along the way," he said. 

He had Starlight retrieve the cards without the red borders on them, which totaled over 400. Starlight automatically sorted them by appearance and hid them all in his parallel dimension. He did all of this without moving a muscle, as moving around while the four had his eyes fixed on him would make him look suspicious. 

"What's our next goal?" Delta asked. "I'm not sure yet. Exhibit CITY is quite massive. I want to explore this area and get a good feel of it before I do anything else unnatural." Quincy answered. 

This still doesn't answer the question of what would happen if all of Quincy's belongings were infused with Endear Force, primarily his Soul Guardian, which still has untapped potential. 

\------------------------------------------------------------ 

After some walking, Quincy and his group discover a location that he didn't see when he first arrived at Exhibit CITY. A tall, mountain-shaped facility that only Quincy could see. "Am I the only one seeing this?" Quincy asked. "Appears so. I don't see anything but a bunch of skyscrapers." Delta responded. Quincy walked inside the doors, and promptly, the entire outside area vanished in a pinch. "You're the lucky one. The one chosen to walk through the Neo Reactor. Forget about the red cards on the wall. They won't bite unless you look at them funny. Why aren't your eyes on what's in front of you instead of all those naughty bits?" Quincy then got startled a bit by the mysterious voice. He didn't know she was tracking his vision and every step. Her voice even started to sound familiar. "Are you somebody that I might know?" Quincy asked. "Maybe I am, maybe I'm not. You will have to find out yourself," she answered. Quincy did not get to see much of the Neo Reactor before a pink arrow-like bolt flew at him and punctured him in the abdomen. "I'm going to test you. Behold, a new location crafted from your inner soul!" she announced. 

Heaven's Route. 

A sea of clouds surrounded by all things pink. Some of Quincy's cards were floating in the background, which started to disorient the guy a bit. "I'm not quite used to this level of cuteness yet. Is my mental energy not enough to process it in full? It's related to Starlight. He should know a thing or two about this place." Quincy thought. He summoned Starlight. "I've detected over a dozen signs of life in this area. ...Mostly pink foxes." he stated. "Say that again?" Quincy quipped. "Also, this area is compatible with Reverb Adjustments. They influence Soul Guardians by upgrading them to their highest potential. It appears that I can undergo one of these adjustments. Doing so, however, would tax your mental strength. So, in preparation for this, I will allow you to skip the course and allow you to meet the master of this location--" "That ain't happening." Quincy said as he went up and rushed after the first group of pink foxes. They were small, yet powerful. Music might have influenced them. Either way, they weren't going to let Quincy get close to the Route's master. Their primary attacks are indirect. Their spherical projectiles detonate when they collide with a target, inflicting massive injury to those not prepared to handle the kind of power associated with Endear Force. Quincy is no exception to this, so the more hits he takes (and he takes a lot of them), the less willpower he can muster up. He doesn't even consider using Starlight - or any of his weaponry for that matter - to even harm the foxes. Instead, he takes a massive parkour lesson and jumps on each cloud that he passes by. The higher up, the better. He does nearly fall off a few times, but with a little effort (and some creativity), he makes it up there to confront her. "What are you doing here? Why'd you throw that bolt of lightning at me?" Quincy asked. "I didn't. It was an attempt by one of the Endear Cards to upgrade your Guardian. I just thought it needed a bit of an upgrade." she answered. "Really? You mean you're not here to harm me?" Quincy curiously asked. "Oh no, I'm not. I'm only here to test you," she responded. Her human-like silhouette dispersed to reveal none other than-- 

"Ah, you're that grey bunny from... man I can't think of the name..." Quincy stated. This before he got thrown to the (invisible) wall by an Endear Detonator and hit by a whip. The whip grabbed his head before tossing him upward. "Are you going to train yourself against the unrelenting forces of a brain break?!" she asked. The Endear Cards - the ones Quincy likes the most - spin around the battlefield as the pink clouds shine in assorted colors. It was a battlefield no-one could forget! 

Nancy Etude. A silhouette entity that always takes the form of the character that the one talking to them is most familiar with, in a sense. Quincy had known about her form for years yet couldn't become 100% acquainted with it yet. He doesn't even know the point of the "brain break". "What are you referring to?" Quincy asked, now on the ground getting up. As Nancy puts her whip away, she says, "An entity much like yourself who does not have an affinity with Endear Force can only have a glimpse at these cards for about 2 seconds. If you can increase this limit, then the Reverb adjustment can be yours. But first, you have to prove to me how well you can withstand my attacks." She strikes Quincy with her whip more than once, Quincy blocking each strike as they come along. He's unable to summon Starlight to his position, as the Guardian is being put on standby to prevent Quincy from cheating. "Why are you so powerful?" Quincy asked. "Why are you so weak? You have all the firepower you need, and you can't even harness it to knock me aside? What took you so long to develop your skills? Or are you hiding them from me to confuse and puzzle me? You should know--" Nancy asked. "I'm not hiding a thing from you at all. I know what my limitations are, and I know that I cannot surpass my 2 second...limit?" Quincy said before he realized that while he was talking to Nancy, he had stared at the cards in the background for 5 whole seconds. He had broken his limit without knowing. "6 seconds. 7 seconds. 8 seconds. 9 seconds. How far can I go?" Quincy asked, partly to himself. "The needle stops when the track has finished playing. But is there a way to bypass the runtime and keep going? The vinyl doesn't stop when the needle does, it stops when the user SAYS it's done!" Starlight states. His metaphor proves poignant, for he reveals that he's been concealing the bolt that the Endear Card threw at Quincy! He pierces his front with the bolt, giving both enlightened views of the world around them. Quincy gains a completely new moveset. Starlight gets upgraded to Starlight Reverb, which adds a circular fixture in his chest that allows him to use moves that require Endear Force. Additionally, Quincy now has 5 unique styles to choose from: Quasideity, which emphasizes wearing the opponent out with fast and weak attacks. Demigod, which uses a light amount of brute force combined with the weak attack part provided through Endear Force. Intermediate, which provides a steady balance of Endear Force and regular attacks with help from Starlight. Greater, which prioritizes Endear Force and Starlight over regular attacks, only using them when necessary. Overdeity is a last resort move and involves overexerting the user, pushing their attacks to the highest limit possible. After the 5-minute time limit, however, they enter a cooldown period of 7 seconds. After that, the moveset has an added cooldown period of 5 minutes. This makes it very crucial that it be used as a last resort. 

Quincy discovers his new powers and throws a hexagon-shaped projectile at Nancy, pushing her back a little. 

"You passed the test. Now can I see how dirty-minded you are?" Nancy asks. "You want me to do what?!" Quincy asked in surprise. 

\------------------------------------------------------------ 

[May 23-24: World Revolution Part 1] 

"Actually, that's the STUPIDEST thing you could have ever produced. Do you know how much more powerful I am now?" Quincy replied. The red-bordered cards, Arousal Cards, then became surrounded by Quincy's Endear Force Drones. "These drones don't stop until their target's GONE. I hope you have a lovely day." 

"I contacted The Denizen before you got here. She told me that these cards that you found will get you kicked out of the world. So I'm going to prematurely erase it for you and use a chunk of it for my own--" Nancy spoke before Quincy stunned her with a hexagon projectile, launched her up in the air using Starlight and finished the job with the meanest string of attacks ever known. Quincy left her up there hanging by Starlight's hand as he fled out of there. No sooner than that did a swarm of pink pass by Quincy's darker-than-dark view. He couldn't see where he was going, so he didn't know what to do. He finally arrived at this abandoned warehouse filled with fallen structures and debris everywhere. It was like it was recovering from an explosion. That swarm of pink from earlier was, in fact, the foxes that Quincy had gone out of his way to avoid. They were repaying him for his kindness (though unintentional) by moving some of the debris out of the way so that Quincy could pass by. He didn't know why they were helping him, but he was gonna need all the help he could get. After they signaled him to leave the facility, Nancy jumped out of the glass wall and tackled Quincy to the ground. She wasn't going to let him leave so easily. However, Quincy had other ideas. He used his free hand to rocket himself out of Nancy's grip with an Endear Card. Starlight followed him out of there and they both arrived at Exhibit CITY... with a noticeable lack of a Neo Reactor coupled with Delta, Reverse Dog, and Exciter fighting off the Arousal Drones. One of them was following behind Quincy as he ran to support the heroes. Starlight teleported behind him and threw it so far that it disappeared behind the water's edge. It took a while for the pink foxes to show up and drive the drones away, but when they did, EVERYONE noticed, and it was spectacular. Like an aurora borealis reflecting from the earth's waters. "What was all the commotion about?" Delta asked. "It's nothing, just a little motion. We have nothing to worry about here." Quincy said when Nancy was on her way there to reclaim her place as the one who will erase the world. Then... 

"Change!" Starlight called out. 

Everyone was warped back to Exhibit MASTER before Nancy could even notice them, which took the pink foxes with them. Quincy turned back to look at his new army as Delta noticed something on the wall, which showed Exhibit CITY. "What is she doing?" Delta asked. Quincy turned back around and stated, "Reconstructing what the Pink Sun had made for us and us only. Bet you a penny he ain't gonna show up and do some justice about it." 

The Pink Sun descends from the sky, said something non-descript to Nancy before the silhouette backed up against one of the walls, and got vaporized by the Sun's deadly lasers. She did not even have TIME to colonize a thing. “Glad that’s over.” Quincy remarked. 

“Did anyone else notice something flying over us when we teleported?” Delta asked. They all look behind themselves. 

Nothing quite scaled to the size of this magnificent army of Remnants before. Even the foxes were scared, and they have been through some rough stuff. 

Starlight then came over Quincy and gave him a tip. "Your Endear Cards have special properties. Try raising one of them in the air." 

Quincy did just that, and it transformed into a gun! "Quite big, don't you think?" Starlight remarked. Quincy aimed it and fired it forward. Everyone got out of the way as the rainbow-colored beam obliterated everything in its path. "All of those Succubuses, gone. All because you had cute stuff on standby." Starlight said. "You possess a customizable set of weaponry! The 8 Colors of Death is not the only gun you have, either! Watch when you meet more enemies!" 

"You did all of that with ONE weapon? You have POTENTIAL!" Exciter exclaimed. "He's a valuable resource for our quest." Reverse Dog said. "Quest for what?" Quincy asked. "The world IS ending, but from a different root. If you can stop the process, it would be pleasant. The world is ending because of an overflow of Remnants trying to harm the Solemn Bridge. The Bridge is where people go to get their strength from the Prayer Force, which you may have heard of or even used. It's not a place where you travel, but a place you contact. If we can't destroy the Remnants, we can't save the world." Delta explained. "Which world?" Quincy asked. "Both of them. And before you ask, that gun you used earlier will not work on all of them. You need more weaponry." Delta said. "We need to move to our final area: Distortion A0." 

"Are there more numbers?" Quincy asked. 

"No, just A0. It's up in space." Delta said. 

Quincy's eyes lit up in surprise. 

“I’m getting sick and tired of this cliché.” Reverse Dog commented. 

\------------------------------------------------------------- 

[May 25-28: World Revolution Part 2: Spare the Child] 

Distortion A0. A major flaw in the back of the head. A messed-up point in space where none shall go. It's from this point onward that no other location, either here in the Metaverse or there in Solution City, even matters anymore. This is all because I, Quincy, have started to see things upon taking on the different spatial works of art up in the air. These different stars and galaxies up there... They make me feel anxious inside. As if I hadn't done enough to contribute anywhere. Wait... What kind of contributions HAVE I done? This isn't MY work of art... This is someone else's! I know exactly where I'm going next! I'm going to run up there and show them what territory they've crossed! 

I don't know what's gotten into him. I'm his Soul Guardian, yet I feel like I have taken a life of my own. Is this a request from the Pink Sun? What am I to do now? I feel like I'm the one taking charge of this crew and not Quincy. He needs help. A way to grow some self-confidence. I haven't recorded any evidence that he needs any... That's a sign. A sign that our developments haven't progressed enough. Not enough time has happened in our lives for us to grow up and become proper people. 

"Quincy, are you warping reality? Because Delta, Reverse Dog, and Exciter are not present--" 

"Starlight now's not the time. They're gone because I mandated it. This is all a "me" journey now. Positively no-one can intrude--" 

Starlight just grabbed Quincy by the neck. "Is that jealousy that I sense in your heart? Or are you mad because you're absolutely talentless?" he growled. 

"Yes, I am. In fact, you haven't noticed this yet, but I'm in control of the whole journey! The very essence of this text giving you and I life, I've been jotting down every word. I have the full potential to erase you from the list of people I've met. This is the line of space where my control over the Metaverse is absolute. Not even the Pink Sun can do anything about it. Remember when it said I was a reality-warper? It did NOT lie to you! Selfishness is out-of-bounds today!" Quincy explained in such a gleeful tone. He was so glad to be in his comfort zone that he didn't even care who was there and who was missing. If he had power and could go after whoever he wanted, he was FINE. Starlight hated it, but Quincy didn't care about that, either. "Just wanna let you know, I'm keeping my things so that in case you want to go after me, you wouldn't stand a chance," Quincy said. 

"Are you sure about that?" Starlight asked. He then closed his circular chest opening as a peculiar sound rang off. "What's going on?" Quincy asked. "You're not really an evil soul. You are being tormented by something and it's showing hard. I don't know what it is, but we need to get it out of you." Starlight explained. "Oh no, Starlight! It's a recurring feeling, you don't get it! I want to be great just like these stars are! I cannot completely do so because I'm under heavy pressure to get things done elsewhere! (Starlight: Where elsewhere?) Let me guess... Irrelevant things. I don't WANT to improve on my hobbies and skills. It falls on getting what I want the effortless way. If I can't do that, nobody else gets to do anything. No two people can apply for the same role! Once I take the slot, you're left behind! Even if I fail at what I do, I won't improve just because YOU told me to! It's a matter of effort, and I'm not a man of effort. DON'T pressure me! Take it easy and let the experience do the talking." Quincy rambled. Starlight took all that in. "Yep. An intruder of the soul. It looks like we'll need to crack the shell open to get to the fruit. However, I'm not sure how to do that without destroying the host. Looks like I'll need backup." he said to himself. 

Starlight flies over to the large cluster of stardust in front of the massive platform. "I'm going to need some reinforcements!" he shouted. "Of what kind?" the Pink Sun asked. "Someone worthy of boosting self-confidence." Starlight asked. "In that case, then..." 

A green rabbit flew from the stars. It was none other than Sprite, an inhabitant from Solution City! His Soul Guardian is a diamond-clad reality warper known as Crystal Clear. "Hey, joker! You're me if you get your act right. I heard all your comments from over here! This Guardian here can relay anything from anyone for me to hear. I see an attention-seeking talent-less somebody over where I can beat some sense into!" he said while diving down where Quincy is. "Never thought I'd meet myself," Quincy said. "You're me? How are we connected?" Sprite asked. "Don't answer that. How would you respond if I showed you this?" He raised a certain Tier-3 Endear Card. He had gathered it from the Metaverse itself since it's well-preserved in Quincy's memory. He walks around Quincy while saying this, "You gather cards like this, appreciating their worth, yet you get sick to your stomach when you do. Why? You have jealousy in your heart, and that's a cardinal sin! At least I know what to do and say when I see a thing like this. Those Metaverse Junctions where you get the cards from often overexcite you. When you see a thing like this, you DIRECTLY compare it to your work, which is minuscule by sheer comparison. You wear that average-at-best drawing on your tunic as a useless badge and call it standard? I believe there's another way to go about this." 

He rips the "badge" off Quincy's garment and tosses it out in space. 

"There. I don't care about your ego. All I need from you is some skill, confidence, and EFFORT. Don't like that word? I'll say it AGAIN! 

Effort. (He gets close to Quincy's face while saying this.) 

I'll be honest with you, I never expected this much of a baby-ish attitude from someone who THINKS he's worthy of calling himself a HERO. You are not that at all if a drill sergeant like me can bully you. Grow a spine, young man." 

"Those words don't deter a self-centered man like me," Quincy said. He pulls out the Solution Sword... or well, a negative-colored version of it. Sprite had the real thing, but he did not bother pulling it out. “Talk about stolen property, young man!” Sprite said as he waited for Quincy to approach him. Once he did, Sprite summoned Crystal Clear and moved him under the ground. "In one move, I can instantly ground you." Sprite taunted. "That pun doesn't make sense," Quincy said as he freed himself from the ground and swung at Sprite. Crystal Clear blocked the hits and telekinetically threw Quincy all the way out in space. Sprite gave chase and started an air combo on Quincy that carried him further out into the depths of the cosmos. Quincy felt his equipment disappearing before him. Crystal Clear had taken them from him and retrieved them to Sprite! "Think twice before you engage in thievery, got it?" he said. "What's the Pink Sun gonna do next? I bet that wise little sphere wouldn't think twice before wiping you off the map." Sprite taunted. "Say your words. I have enough to mess around with! Even if I DO go crazy over the talent of one-- no, MULTIPLE people, I'll still have enough energy to spare--" Quincy said. The Pink Sun then came over and pulled him apart. Quincy felt every ounce of pain afterward. "I know what's going on with his heart. It's already going wild." the Pink Sun said. "Why?" Sprite asked. "It's the Endear Card that Starlight jammed into it. He's deliberately hyping it up to reveal his inner sins. Now that we know what the target is, there's one more thing we need to do." Pink Sun explained. "What is that?" Sprite replied. 

"Don't let him go near anything resembling paper and pencil. He's not allowed to draw anything at all. In fact, he's not allowed to exert anything resembling effort. Not until my further discretion. I will handle him from now on. Now Sprite, how about you go further up into the Cosmic Expanse where I was before and take up the canvas? You try drawing something!" Pink Sun answered. Quincy's heart was about ready to jump out of the guy. The Pink Sun made it stay completely still. "Face the devil. Learn from people that try harder than you do. If you cannot do that, you don't deserve a soul." it said to Quincy. 

"This is a privilege and a half!" Sprite said to himself when he got to the gigantic art museum that is The Expanse. Filled with all sorts of artistic wonders (from classical to modern) from top to bottom, this incredible structure had different sections for diverse kinds of creations, from watercolor to digital art. All Sprite had to do was find his way. "I'll create something decent in no time at all! It just takes practice... and tons of it. It also takes confidence, something my lowlife brother completely lacks." he said to himself. It was a joy just walking through the place. The structure was PERFECT. Too bad Quincy could not come along. 

The man was seeing stars. Stars traveled throughout the night sky, showing off the creations that Quincy had become jealous of through constellations. It angered the guy to no end. Sprite had everything. Quincy had nothing. The madness developed into an inability to think, and so Quincy developed visions. He saw colorful tunnels and starry mixtures. He had driven himself to sleep doing this, but the visions followed him there and drove him to a dream-like state. Unbeknownst to him, the Pink Sun had done that to him to dull the pain that was about to come when it dug into his inner being to find the thing responsible for making his mind up to be the way it is. "I can't find anything. I cannot at all. Does this mean that the sin had built its way into Quincy himself? Was he always like this?" it said to itself. 

"Either way, Exhibit MASTER had centered itself around Quincy and became one with him. This explains why Distortion A0's exit is blocked off. If anyone tries to go, they will see nothing but darkness." 

Unfortunately for Sprite, the worst possible thing just had to happen to him. Just when he found the Canvas on the left side of the room, the world spun around him. Indeed, it made positively no sense! The compression of the entire Metaverse was unprecedented. Sprite didn't see it coming, that's for sure. He would think the Pink Sun did it to crush Quincy into a bite-sized disaster. But the real reason was far worse. Much, much worse. 

Upon waking up in a non-descript forest covered with leaves, Sprite just had to look around. Everything except him resembled PlayStation game graphics. Over there on that side of the forest was a dying Pink Sun. Every card in the gallery, which totaled 3,600+, surrounded him. "What's the matter?" Sprite called out as he ran to the Pink Sun. "Quincy obtained absolute power. I don't know where he got it from, but he broke from my grasp and fatally wounded me. I think his heart might've overflowed and nullified anything I could do to him." Pink Sun explained. Sprite just whirled the cards to him and surrounded himself with them. They were absorbed into his already existing deck of 1,000+ cards as Sprite became an infinitely more powerful being. However, despite telling the Pink Sun that he was going to make things right... 

His next journey to the Building Where Ends Meet ended sourly. Quincy descended from above to land on the platform. The moon can be seen from below the night sky, and it was quite big. A massive city can be seen below the platform's edges. It appears that the dark building was indeed a clock tower. Are we in London? Who knows? All that Quincy had to say to Sprite was that the world was being built in the former's image. Nothing was going to stop him there, and he's right. Even as Sprite confronted him with more cards than a game of Old Maid, Quincy just fired back with a current of lightning. Sprite just took the Solution Sword and used it to block the electricity. In response to Quincy's display of electrocution, he took and Endear Card and transformed it into a pair of claws. Once he put away the sword, he went after Quincy with his shockproof razors. Clash after clash, they dueled and dueled some more. Crystal Clear tried to teleport Quincy to a more vulnerable state, but Quincy caught on, incapacitated Crystal Clear with a pickaxe to the head, and was about to do the same thing to Sprite. Both rabbits were hovering over the building - and thus, the city - as they struggled to see who could control the world better. They dashed about in the open air, a whirlwind of massive proportions swirling around them as they clashed, throwing all manner of energy projectiles at each other. It was a battle for the ages, but Quincy had other plans. "I whipped up this tempest to carry me into parts unknown! You have more rooms to discover than just this!" he said as he threw Sprite into the Tower of Initiative, which this time was filled with floating gears that looked ready to attack someone. It was Quincy's dungeon to throw those that get in his way to. It had three floors and a whole lot of time manipulation. 

At least Starlight found his way outside the tower, though he had to keep hidden from Sprite, because the last time Sprite saw him, he was associated with Quincy. But Starlight knew what happened. He was ready to tell Sprite about it. 

After getting up, Sprite looked around him and above him. The gears above him were VERY hostile, spinning around aggressively. Since this was the Tower of Initiative, these were the gears on the wall that Impulse brought up. They weren't gears for improving behavior at all! Since Quincy controls the Metaverse, the gears have been repurposed for attacking anyone who attempts to get to him. They didn't have time to transform into their animal counterparts before Sprite just spun around with his sword, whipping up a large tornado that consumes them all. "That should do it for that group. Who needs to swing around their sword aimlessly and waste their energy doing so when you can just lead with a good move?" Sprite commented. "It's unnatural how many swordsmen do so and fail miserably because they weren't careful." Crystal Clear replied. Walking out of the room with the windows, they reach a fancy hallway decked out with candles, gold chandeliers, and tables. "Is Quincy really this self-centered?" Crystal Clear thought. Neither did any of them know that Starlight was there as a shadow on the wall. He leaped about, out of sight from Sprite and Crystal Clear. They didn't even notice a shadow on the wall because it was so small and constantly moving! Starlight took this chance to unlock the entrance to the second floor by opening the door above, revealing the stairs. He went up and never got detected in Sprite's eyes again. "Those are the stairs to the second floor, let's go--" Crystal Clear told Sprite before 5 clones of Quincy and Sprite appeared all around them. "I saw you before you saw me," Quincy said over a non-existent intercom. 

Crystal Clear ducked under his teleportation portal as Sprite readied his sword. 

Sprite kicked one into the wall, pulverizing it with a shockwave from his sword. 

Crystal Clear returned from his portal and kicked another clone into the table, snapping its neck with the edge of the table. 

Sprite grabbed Crystal and threw him into another clone, carrying it into Crystal's portal. 

The two others attempted to rush Sprite from behind, but Quincy turned around and bisected them both. 

Crystal came back from the portal, having suffocated the other clone. 

"So, are we done with that?" Crystal asked. 

"Let's make it up the stairs first. Then we can start asking questions." Sprite replied. 

The second floor comes with its own little surprises: Sprite's Canvas. "I finally found it!" Sprite exclaimed. Both Soul and Soul Guardian walk towards the canvas, with Sprite looking upon it in wonder and intrigue. Sprite takes his time drawing upon it because he didn't choose the Canvas. It chose HIM. The kaleidoscopic world within the canvas unveiled itself, giving Sprite a companion to work with. 

"I heard you were looking all over for me," she said with the accent of an African American woman. 

"Yes, actually I was. Do you have a name?" Sprite asked respectfully. 

"My name is Stacy. This Canvas has been a housing spot for me ever since the thing was made. I'm someone that can help motivate those who are struggling to find their way in the world of arts and crafts." she explained. A cyan feline with a profound taste in visual media, Stacy weaponizes the element of ice by skating around and firing ice shards. When she isn't freezing enemies to the touch, she's usually making ice puns. 

Sprite starts drawing a heart on the canvas when three Ambient Gears try to bull-rush Stacy. "The three colors you need are red, green, and orange! Color that heart and the Canvas will absorb it! Your artistic repertoire will improve, and your side of the Expanse will grow!" Stacy shouts to Sprite. The more he draws, the more they get close. Stacy just ends it right there and now by touching one of the gears. Doing this, she unleashes a wave of ice that freezes them all in their tracks. 

"These guys just need to chill out." Stacy quips. 

"Your puns are the worst." Sprite thought to himself. 

"Are you done with the heart yet?" Stacy asked Sprite. 

"Got it done in record time," Sprite said. 

"No, no, no, NO! An artist NEVER rushes his work! You must give each step its own momentum and grace! Just wait 'till the Artist's Guild sees that..." Stacy exclaims. "Regardless, you did a good job." 

They both exit the Canvas World, with the drawing now firmly embedded in Sprite's side of the Expanse. 

"What now?" Sprite asks. 

"We've got company." Stacy cautiously points out. 

Indeed, 6 Ambient Gears have surrounded them both. They both ready their weapons as they defend the Canvas... 

Then a pink beam shines on the Gears before a wave of light destroys all 6. They both turn around to see who could have done that. 

"Starlight?!" Sprite exclaims. 

"Not so loud. Quincy might hear us." Starlight tells him. 

By the time the heroes turn around, however, they've come face to face with Quincy himself. They were all standing on a floating rock platform high above a desert. Stacy and Starlight then vanished before Sprite even figured out what was going on. Sprite couldn't even call Crystal Clear over to help him out. "I've decided today that Soul Guardians are absolute jokes. This is a problem for both of us. We're both going through the same thing." Quincy said to Sprite. He was seemingly standing there ready for Sprite to hit him, but he wasn't actually there at all! Sprite stepped over and looked at Quincy's position. Sure enough, he was covered up by a projection. The arena started bending itself, though Sprite didn't move. "Haven't you noticed that I projected the Metaverse specifically to cloud the fact that my artistic achievements aren't nearly as welcome as those found on Tier-3 Endear Cards? Those are well-respected, making me seem like someone below his caliber." Quincy said to Sprite. As plants started growing under the rocks, Sprite started wondering HOW Quincy can do all of this. Regardless, his only reply was, "Maybe that's because you need a few years under the canvas." 

"We're not talking about the canvas and I refuse to touch it," Quincy replied. 

"What're you going to do about your complex, then?" Sprite asked. 

"Simple. I'm going to wreck all of these cards - all of them - and then be done with it." Quincy said. 

"Eh, two can play that game," Sprite said. 

Sprite then enters Quincy's world of frozen reality and confronts him face-to-face. "I'm not going to stop you from doing this. I really am not." Sprite says. 

Quincy, confused, says, "Wait, really? Even if I wreck all the cards, you're just going to stand there?" 

"Indeed. I wouldn't do anything to get in your way as long as you have it all. We both have the same problems, but only one of us has a chance to improve. You've trapped everyone inside your world of frozen reality - which is all yours to manipulate - so that you can eventually erase them. I can understand that perfectly. But the Metaverse is gone. It's all gone. The closest thing we have to it is the Expanse, but you can't go near that in fear of being melted away by your own jealousy. Think about it. My Canvas is so harmful to you that you chose to defend it rather than letting me express my own free will. That's all fine with me too. Just don't expect anyone to not oppose you in the meantime. However, I won't even harm you this time around. You haven't done anything wrong, you just need a massive confidence boost. I don't know where you would get it from, but it won't be me. I'll leave it alone for the time being while you relocate to get your head straight." Sprite says. He evacuates the missing heroes and rushes them out of the Frozen Reality. Quincy can only stare in disbelief at how he managed to do it so fast. It all came to a head when the world of random objects and zipper holes collapsed into Quincy's soul, permanently eliminating the concept of a Soul Guardian and reducing him to a mere thoughtform. 

"Time really flies when you're thinking about yourself all day, doesn't it?" Sprite tells everyone. They were all inside the Expanse. 

"What happened up there?" Exciter comments. "I didn't even get to use any of my skills!" 

"Quincy froze you all in his world before you COULD do anything. Figures, since dealing with all 6 of us could really tire a jealous guy out." Sprite explains. "Did you find anything new in Quincy's version of the Expanse?" 

"Well, it carries over here as well. We found a movie theater behind the art museum." Stacy replies. 

"A movie theater? Can you describe to me how you found it?" Sprite asks. 

"It took a ton of effort, given the Expanse itself was crushingly hard to find in such a large area. However, we noticed a movie playing behind one of the dark walls. We couldn't tell you what the movie was about to save our skins, but I think it's around here too." Stacy replies. 

The six people check the door behind the art museum. Sure enough, there are three columns of chairs, six rows each. Backed by a powerful sound system, the lights in the theater are lit because there isn't a film being played on it right now. It looked positively majestic. The five have never seen anything like it, but they do wonder why it exists. 

But something followed them there. A tank leaped out of the wall and transformed into a caricature of Quincy. It was the guy's last-ditch effort to eliminate the six friends and prevent them from protecting the Tier-3 cards. 

"This is the Master Room! It's where the best cards are hidden! Change this cinema to the Master Room and show me the cards!" Magnet-Q3 said to them in a menacing voice. The heroes readied their weapons as Stacy charged in and froze the floor. She encased herself in ice before Magnet could attack her. 

Sprite warped out of the arena, hoping to surprise attack Magnet. 

Exciter ran up and did a punch combo on Magnet before being knocked away. 

Delta attempted to hit Magnet and came very close, but Magnet twisted her arms behind her and threw her at the screen. Her Delta Force prevented her impact from harming the screen. 

Pinky went the careful route and fired pink projectiles at Magnet. Her dodging is expert-level, as Magnet couldn't even get close, even once. Their fight lasted the longest, for when Reverse Dog tried to intervene, Magnet knocked him away and charged up his arm cannon. 

Pinky took the chance to knock him away with a hard hit to the body. It worked... 

And Sprite came back with a whole deck of Endear Cards. Tier-3 ones. "See what I did there? You'll never find the Master Room like this," he said. 

He shuffled the cards and then pulled one put. He turned it into a flashlight that shone a brilliant tri-colored light. "Orange, Blue, and Red. That's all I need to beat you," he said as he turned it into a laser sword. 

Clashing at Magnet, Sprite swung and hit him more than once. Once he launched him, he switched up and took out a massive RPG (rocket-propelled grenade). 

He launched the grenade, but Magnet caught it. "You thought it would do something to me, but you're dead wrong." Magnet said. He threw it aside and confronted Sprite by teleporting to him. 

He punched Sprite multiple times, the guy blocking each attack. When a person puts their arms up, they gain a small field around each arm that perfectly blocks a blow. That field is invisible, but the effect isn't. 

Magnet's attacks included strands of light organized into shapes fired as projectiles, white webs from the arms to grab people with, a razor-sharp yoyo, and lots of explosion-related attacks from firing missiles to projecting explosions on the ground. That wasn't even all of the moves, either. The fight dragged on for a good amount of time. 

"I think we need a solution to all of this. How about all of these?" Sprite said to Magnet. He arranged all of the cards into a circle. Sprite levitated Magnet's gun (which is actually Quincy's) to him, readied his aim, fired the gun into the circle. 

Particle collider. 

Magnet was bisected by the resulting beam, which transferred the result to Quincy himself. Within seconds, his thoughtform was no more. 

"Is everyone okay?" Sprite asked. Everyone slowly got back up and was relieved that Sprite was still alive. "Couldn't have said that better," Delta replied. 

All was well. The Master Room was carefully concealed behind the separate dimension that Sprite had obtained when he inherited Crystal Clear's ability as an Affinity. We're gonna have a lesson on this later on. Sprite had goaded Quincy to fight inside the Master Room's cinema form because he knew that Quincy would be the most beatable there. His jealousy led him into that precise trap. 

Ain't he the best?


	2. B-Side

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Quincy's thoughts mutate to another world, where Delta takes up the errand of teaching him how to control himself around others. His monologues make up most of the chapter, alongside sequences taking place inside the otherwise unused Visionary City.

Alright, so now I'm stranded in a city, the Visionary City. Before we talk about that, let me share some info with you. Contributors can be found ALL OVER Solution City. Anyone can join that club. Seemingly anyone can join it. It turns out; you can only have fame if you do the right things for the right reasons. I tended to rush my work in the in-between hours of my journey. There are some things you may not have read about that involve me. That's because I deliberately left them out. For now, let's concentrate on the main idea. You see, I have a SERIOUS issue with not being able to create anything that can allow myself to be known. To be fair, I mostly create to GET known. That's not how an artist should do things, I know. I just didn't know any better, and as a result, I often made some very messy creations. Not to worry, I'm going to get better. Eventually, I might join the ever-changing Artist's Guild and improve myself there. I think someone's coming.

3 hours earlier

"I have an errand to run. See you in a few days!" Delta said to the other five. They said goodbye and waved to her before she left. They were all in Solution City, utterly invisible to the other residents there due to them all hailing from the Metaverse, so they were okay. Delta warped herself to Visionary City, a place she didn't expect to find in the strands of the universe. "I thought this city had vanished a long time ago! It became completely erased when it fell short to war, didn't it? Either way..." she said to herself. "Oh, there he is. Might wanna introduce myself to him," she said when seeing Quincy. 

"Remember me, Quincy? It's been a while, so I thought I might want to check in once in a while. How have things been going since you got here?" Delta says to Quincy with an oddly enthusiastic attitude. "What's with the theatrics?" Quincy inquired. "Didn't think you'd end up in a city with buildings much taller than both of us. It looks so ancient and Vatican City-like. Maybe we should take a walk and talk about our feelings." she said. Little did they both know that the Greek Zodiac was out and about in this territory. Sagittarius, Leo, Libra, and Gemini had already claimed the Visionary City as their landmark. They were powerful entities outlined by blue stripes that also gave their bodies form. Sagittarius weaponizes the arrow, Gemini is the master of duplication, Libra makes every strike of her sword count, and Leo symbolizes the pride of the lion. The four of them continue to stalk their prey in the shadows.

Just then, a lightning bolt the size of a car struck Quincy; it did not harm him any. Instead, lightning enveloped him, and he was able to use it to an absurd degree! His first reaction to this was to charge forward and grab Leo, charging him with lightning. Leo wrestled with Quincy throughout the entire encounter and even tried to attack him. However, Quincy struck back with a few melee attacks before finishing him off with two significant currents of lightning fired from his hands. The force from the blast split the blue lion in half, attracting the minerals inside of it to Quincy. Once the crystals are absorbed in his system, Quincy starts to change in ways he never expected. For one, his stats improve all around. There's a catch to his lightning powers, though; if the Zodiac overpowers him, then he will lose these powers and eventually wholly fade away. That's the bottom line.  
"Where'd you get those powers from?" Delta inquired. "I don't know. A bolt of lightning struck me, and I took down a lion. It just happened. Anyways, can I tell you about--" Quincy explained. "I'm the one that will ask the questions in this session of therapy. You can ask them later, but let me start the conversation." Delta states. 

They walked down the streets, unaware that Sagittarius was hiding around the corner, readying his arrow. Sagittarius' arrows pierce through their targets, dealing extra damage not only to the one it hits but also to anyone behind the victim. Combined with his impressive footwork, Sagittarius was tough to keep up with, for he had ended the lives of many who inhabit Visionary City. Meaning that if a person who had a chance of coming back to World A got killed by Sagittarius - or any of the Zodiac characters in general - then they wouldn't be able to go anywhere. It meant final death. World A is where places like Solution City are, and it also provides the gateway to other worlds.

I drew something one day. It wasn't very complicated, it wasn't straightforward, either. I thought it looked quite decent for a project created by someone so messy. I threw it out there and showed it to the Artist's Guild. Only one person there - who wasn't even a part of that Guild - congratulated me. I was in shock that day, for I expected something much better than that. Perhaps some methods of improvement, maybe. I didn't get any of that. I only got that one message. You couldn't believe how devastated I was, but to be fair, I didn't know any better. You don't become a masterclass creator on the first day. You have to keep improving on that craft. It takes years to make something masterful - for some even months - but that magnum opus will set the standard for the rest of the things you create with effort. Believe me; I studied up on quite a few people in the Guild that make better things than I do. If that isn't an incentive to try drawing more, I don't know what is. I say this because those masterpieces they create are an inspiration, not meant to intimidate new-coming artists like me. These are all the things I learned from Delta, anyway. Combined with my knowledge of the Artist's Guild, I think I'm going to have to rethink the way I approach them. 

"To join the Guild, you have to put effort into your work. I know that's not something you specialize in, but it has not to be done if you EVER want a chance to at least have a rank in that organization." Delta told me.  
"What rank?" I asked.  
"Inspired. You drew what you drew because someone else gave you that motive to be as good as that." Delta explained.  
"Someone? I only mentioned a group." I told her. I wasn't trying to hide anything from her. However, she said something to me that caught me off-guard.  
"Sure you did, but based on what you said concerning the reception, I discerned that you were referring to one person rather than the whole Guild. I won't burden you much more, but do know that if one person gets a saintly reception, that doesn't mean--" Delta told me. I threw this at her, though:  
"Your next line is: That doesn't mean you have to put your pride out there for all to see, either!" I told her. She was dead speechless after that, but she knew that I predicted her next line correctly. She was rather impressed, but the words still stand. I know better now not to let the reception of others grace me in the wrong way. I should join the celebration instead!

Sagittarius was just around the corner, though. He readied one of his arrows, hoping to pierce whoever comes around and is unlucky enough to see him. However, Quincy heard the string being pulled back and urged Delta to back herself up against the wall. Once she did, Quincy fired a small bolt of lightning at the power line above them. It traveled across the wire, then jumped off the power cable and hit Sagittarius' arrow. Sagittarius recoiled back due to the force of the lightning. "Whoever's controlling this lightning has sensitive ears! ...Wait. I think I know what's going on here." Sagittarius thought as he jumped off his platform and retreated by jumping across the buildings ahead of him. "Stay where you are. I'll make sure this next enemy won't stick around for long." Quincy said to Delta. Around the corner was a fairly average-looking town, with a restaurant and a few other buildings. The only thing that mattered to Quincy was finding Sagittarius, so he imbued his body with lightning and jumped from metal pole to metal pole. "He can't be anywhere far..." Quincy thought. Upon jumping SUPER high up as a result of his kinetic energy raising his speed, he was able to quickly locate the archer and zoom towards him, cracking the asphalt when he landed. Although Delta managed to catch up by sneaking around the buildings, she didn't want to get near the ground zero of their battle, so she chose to watch. "The only reason why they sent us was to bring you down even further and impede your progress to a better life." Sagittarius taunted. "Who sent you?" Quincy asked. "Nobody in particular. We're just purgatorial assassins. Leo was only easy pickings because you were so fast. I, however, refuse to slow down to someone--" Sagittarius explained before Quincy surprised him with Dual Lightning. "Quite a shock. It'll take much more than that to finish me off, however!" Sagittarius shouted while firing three fire arrows. They bounced off the air and homed into Quincy. Quincy simply took off like the wind and had the arrows follow him. They canceled each other out due to bumping into the walls of the buildings, which caused them to stick to the walls as regular arrows would. Sagittarius fired three more, but not before Quincy leaped into the air, caught them, and threw them on the ground. He then rushed towards the archer, smacked him a few times with melee attacks, then kicked him away. Just in time for Quincy to use Arc Radius, which is five lightning bolts that bounce off of surfaces to get bigger, then once they reach maximum size, they combine into one big ball of lightning that explodes once it collides with its target! Within moments, only Sagittarius' bow remained from the ensuing explosion. Quincy, as a result, nearly knocked the power out with his skills.

Allow me to tell you about the Tier-3 Endear Cards. Forged by someone we don't refer to by name (it's that precious, I tell you!), these cards carry a valuable reputation to this day. It didn't feel quite right not to have the kind of affection I truly wanted, and as a result, I did indeed find the Master Room that Magnet-Q3 failed to find for me that day. It wasn't much, though. Just frames of those neatly preserved artifacts hung on the wall and displayed in cases. Nobody was allowed to touch them. Only the eyes could take in all the satisfaction only one genuinely talented individual could provide. The minute I found those creations, I DID feel the urge to destroy them plainly, but I knew right, and well nobody would take kindly to it. This downward spiral of events would only take me closer to the confines of Frozen Reality. It's my little world that I retreat in when I don't feel that great. But not even that would keep me from the sheer amount of envy that I felt down there. I nearly got exiled. If it wasn't for that man Sprite coming down here to repair some kind of "Prayer Bridge"... I don't recall there being such an artifact. What exactly did we come down there for if it wasn't to repair the Bridge? What kind of enemies got sealed down there? All I saw was gigantic foggy stardust. It must've blocked my view of the actual Bridge. Did the Pink Sun see my villainy coming and hide the Bridge from me because he knew that I would impulsively destroy it? So many questions, so little answers.

The next Zodiac was Libra. An elegant swordfighter who shows no mercy in battle, she possesses a reputation among the group as a real challenge, both in personality and in fighting style. Nobody could rival her in swordsmanship, and it was a real pain for those trying to make it out of Visionary. Those poor souls knew that if Sagittarius were too far away for him to make a good shot, Libra would find them and finish the job. They had no other motive other than "this place is mine and nobody else should inhabit it!".

"You need to control that!" Delta shouted.   
"My mistake, I just thought he would move so fast I would lose sight of him. I needed to off him quick." I told her.  
"Anyway, where's our next target? If those two tried to kill us, then who else is out there to carry out these assassinations?" I thought to myself. Delta said those same words back to me when I thought of them.

Libra was well on her way to approach the two when they thought of it. Her sword is quite sharp—no telling what it can cut, considering the sharpness of similar blades. A fearless warrior that fights like no other Zodiac, she was adamant about keeping up a fight. She made it a habit to compare her body count to Sagittarius', which he does not take well. This time, Gemini traveled with her to provide backup just in case she would ever be overpowered. "You know, I heard that the two new guys here CRUSHED two of our units, making it just the two of us," Gemini said. "You forgot about our project. Don't you remember?" Libra reminded him. "Oh yeah. We're still keeping him locked up just in case us two really DO go down." Gemini replied. Gemini was positively CRAZY. This aids his fighting abilities because he can clone himself and attack from any direction. His unpredictability was vital in combat. Who knows where he might be without his clones? Libra approached Delta and Quincy at the parking lot near the pharmacy (thankfully, nobody is around to see them fight) while Gemini hides behind the building itself.

"Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Libra, the third of the four members of the Eastern Zodiac. My body count is unrivaled, and it's all thanks to this sword of mine. It's so sharp..." Libra said before Quincy threw ball lightning at her, forcing her to think fast and cut it in two. "...it can cut lightning in half!" she finished. She rushed at Quincy and swung her sword at a speed that Quincy had to block to be able to track. "It's so fast. Maybe if I moved even faster..." Quincy thought as he threw his electric fists at her at the same speed she was going, moving faster every second. Soon enough, his punches were going at rates fast enough to create sonic booms! Libra was knocked back a few feet by one of those punches. Libra signaled Gemini to come out and reveal his power, but Delta tackled him before he could do anything. Quincy, meanwhile, charged up his body with lightning, changing the color of his outfit to white with blue outlines. His old self had faded entirely, all thanks to his new developments! Wordlessly glaring at Libra, he charged at her faster than the eye can see and took her sword away from her. "Don't say a word," he said as he cut her limb from limb and severed her body in half. To make sure she was gone, he cast some lightning down from the air, which vaporized her upper torso. The sword went with her.  
Meanwhile, Delta activated one of her rings, projecting a massive frost barrier that freezes Gemini's clones, which had been confusing her by charging in one-by-one. This also reveals the real deal, so she punched his head off. Once both Zodiacs had vanished, the Project spoke up. "The Dream Barrier has been unlocked, and it's about time I stop this development before it goes any further! Quincy, I expect full and honest cooperation with me!" it said aloud. 

I'm not going down to this thing. Wherever it may be, I will find it and take it down. Where could it possibly lead? Wait.

The project teleported Quincy and Delta to the Dream Barrier, a colorful arena where it stands. "Have you really backed out of sin for long enough to draw my ire? You've become a new individual because you've broken from my grasp entirely! Now it's about to come to a close. I am stronger than you will EVER be, simply because I possess a large number of skills inherited from disparate sources across the seven years that we've both been alive! You're a refugee from that world, so it's about time I banished you back there! Those Endear Cards will be mine to des--" the project says.  
"Are you done talking?" I interrupted. I got tired of hearing this guy talk. He was a blue, robotic version of me that appears to have mastered time travel. He came all the way from 2013 to take me down and warp me back there to start the cycle over! Either way, this one was on me.

Magnet-FINAL started by charging into me. I kicked him back and repelled him with lightning. Not fazed by this at all, he hovered around the room, his after-images following him. Then he cast a lightning attack similar to mine, except it went around the entire room. Discharging electricity at specific points, we kept at our toes for long enough for him to descend and for Delta to smack him senseless and push him into the wall with her ring. Only a little bit damaged by this, he then dashed around the room, placing vertices where he traveled. When he came back to the middle of the arena, the vertices activated. This laser field didn't concern me in the least, because he left a vast open space in front of him that allowed me to throw him into the background.  
We soared through the open sky, trying to find Magnet-FINAL through the walls of an aerial hallway filled with movie posters. Delta gave me one of her rings to help find him. Since this radar ring conducts lightning, I charged it up and managed to find Magnet-FINAL. I electrically zoomed toward him, phasing through every wall I came across. He also found me and decided to try and hit me at the same time I would. We both flew back; I hit the wall, and he hit a bunch of furniture. We were flying around, clashing with our abilities. This was the way it was going to go. He threw gears at me; I threw lightning bolts at him. He would try and swing at me with a sword, but here's the good part.  
I took an electric sword and clashed back. This was all an experiment to wear him out because he never saw the next thing coming.  
"Are you done?!" I yelled at him.  
"One last trick and you're good to go," Magnet-FINAL said to me.  
His last trick was warping us both back to the Dream Barrier and conjuring five reddish-pink sparks. You hit one of these; they stun you for a painful amount of time, giving Magnet-FINAL a chance to finish you off for good. But I had a plan he didn't see coming at all.  
"Even if you do hit me..." I taunted.  
I pulled out the last Tier-3 of the month.  
"You'll still go down in style. You and me both." I said to Magnet-FINAL.  
The card's radiant energy disabled all five sparks AND sent Magnet-FINAL reeling. I felt so relieved that I could depend on the power of one of these Shatter Cards that I went ahead and charged the rest of it up with my lightning and fired it at Magnet. He went down like a sinking ship, going down in exploding glory. The Dream Barrier was gone, and we were sent back down to the Visionary City. The rapture lights were an entry point to World A. I knew it, and she knew it as well when she finally showed up. I gave her the radar ring back, and we said to each other:

"We're going back where we belong!"

The journey back to World A couldn't be more satisfying. My development carried me this far, and I wasn't willing to let it pass me. The next month ahead will be a conduit for me to shape my course.


End file.
